A new survey by the Arab Advisors Group has revealed that Internet users in Tunisia spent an estimated $132.7 million during the past 12 months in e-commerce transactions. 

Arab Advisors Group said the survey revealed more than 4,16,000 people or 36.4 per cent of Internet users in Tunisia use e-commerce to shop online or through their mobile phones. The survey report, Tunisia Internet Users and E-commerce Survey 2008, was released recently.

The survey, conducted between May and July 2008, covered the Internet usage, e-commerce and cellular usage and habits of the Internet users in Tunisia.

Respondents were randomly targeted by an email shot in their inbox and asked to fill the survey in cooperation with reputable mail list providers in Tunisia.

Arab Advisors Group said its team performed quality control checks and personal validation for the survey, whose report includes online replies from 1,093 respondents.

The survey was conducted on the general Internet population, including both genders and all age groups across Tunisia. The online survey yields a confidence level of 99 per cent with a margin of error of less than four per cent.

The survey results showed 84 per cent of Internet users in Tunisia have Internet access at home, 75.8 per cent use Internet at work, while 24 per cent use public hot spots.

While the survey covered Internet users, it also probed the reasons behind why other members of the same households surveyed do not use the Internet.

Based on the feedback of Internet users, the survey found that computer illiteracy, lack of interest, lack of a perceived need to use the Internet and being too young to use the Internet were the main reasons people stayed away from using the Internet.

'The majority of e-commerce users make electronic payments through credit cards; 64.8 per cent of e-commerce users use credit cards as their e-commerce method of payment. Following credit cards, 27.4 per cent of e-commerce users use prepaid Internet shopping card for their payments,'  Hussam Barhoush, Arab Advisors senior research analyst wrote in the survey report.

The Arab Advisors Group divided the survey questionnaire into two main sections, Telecommunications and Internet, with focus on the following areas:

Telecommunications: Cellular subscriptions; 3G Cellular services awareness 

Internet: Internet usage trends; Internet subscription; Internet access methods and costs; Internet user's social interaction on the Internet;  e-commerce use and trends; e-Banking and e-Government services.

The Arab Advisors Group's team of analysts in the region has produced close to 1,250 reports on the Arab World's communications and media markets.

The services cover Nineteen countries in the Arab World: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania. - TradeArabia News Service