May 17, 2005

The Danish eBusiness Association said yesterday that Denmark's B2B online auction houses are booming with commercial trade in almost every industry, from designer handbags to second-hand furniture. Among the bags and chairs, and a few million other products, more than DKK 1 billion changed hands in 2004. This represents a significant increase from the previous year.

The figure doubled from DKK 500 million in 2003 and is expected to double again in 2005.

'It's a niche within the Danish internet trade showing enormous growth,' said Morten Kamper, director of FDIH. 'It has become bigger than e.g. in the total sales of music in Denmark.'

FDIH calculated the sales figures from information from ten online auctioneers, but did not include more conventional message board-type online market places, nor Danish trade through large international auction portals.

One of the largest domestic portals, Lauritz.com, reported a turnover of DKK 363 million last year, 71 percent more than in 2003. Lauritz.com sold 168,000 goods over the internet last year, 80 percent to private customers.

Bengt Sundstrøm, spokesman for Lauritz.com, said designer furniture remained the most popular goods on the portal.

'What's new is that we also sell vintage clothing and designer handbags via the internet, and that will probably keep growing,' he said.

The explosive growth in pier-to-pier trade in online auction houses, which mediate business between two private traders, has the retail sector ready to enter the market.

Gorm Johansen, chief consultant at Danish Commerce & Service (DHS), a commercial interest organization, said retail shops could easily move parts of their sales to the internet if they had a decent web page.

'If you buy a television online from an anonymous person, you do so at your own risk,' he said. 'If you buy over the internet from a shop, it gives you extra security concerning payment, rights to return, and guarantee.'

DHS is currently investigating the easiest way for shops to enter the pier-to-pier online market.

Source: The Copenhagen Post