The number of e-commerce users increased by 9 percent year-on-year. "Considering the coronavirus restrictions, it is natural that the biggest growth was recorded in the online purchases of food and consumer goods, clothes, shoes and sports goods, and household goods. As could be expected, the biggest decrease occurred in the online purchases of tickets for various events and insurance policies," Statistics Estonia analyst Epp Remmelg said.

She added that there was a fall in the number of persons who made more expensive online purchases, while the share of persons spending less on online purchases increased.

Nearly 92 percent of households have an internet connection at home, and 83 percent of households have a fixed internet connection. The share of persons with access to the internet is the highest in Lääne county (97 percent), Tallinn city and Harju county (95 percent), and the lowest in Põlva county (84 percent).

91 percent of the population aged 16–74 use the internet, and 93 percent of internet users use it every day. The share of internet users is increasing most rapidly in older age groups: compared to 2020, the share of internet users among people aged 65-74 grew by 17 percent.

Enterprises use software to achieve greater efficiency

Enterprises have begun adopting new technologies to improve the efficiency of their operations. "The survey revealed that the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software is gradually spreading. Both ERP and CRM software are used by 23 percent of enterprises," analyst Tiina Pärson noted.

Among small enterprises with less than 20 employees, ERP software is used by a little over a tenth of enterprises. Among large enterprises with 250 or more employees, ERP software is used by 69 percent. The share of enterprises using ERP software is the highest in manufacturing, energy, wholesale and retail trade, information and communication, and professional, scientific and technical activities.

CRM software is used for the collection, storage and management of customer information, and for the analysis of this information for marketing purposes. The use of CRM software is the most common among enterprises engaged in information and communication, professional, scientific and technical activities, and wholesale and retail trade.

For the first time, the 2021 survey studied the use of artificial intelligence (AI), as it is a key part of digital transformation. Nearly a fifth of large enterprises use artificial intelligence, compared to just 2 percent of small enterprises. 6 percent of enterprises are considering the adoption of AI technologies.

The most common uses of artificial intelligence are for production processes, for sales and marketing, for running administrative processes and for the security of information and communication technologies (ICT).

For more information on information and communication technologies data, see here. More detailed data has been published in the Statistics Estonia database.

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