Consumers in the Digital World: Representative Survey on Digital Consumer Skills and the Use of Comparison and Mediation Platforms

The primary objectives of the survey conducted on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection for the German Council of Consumer Experts are a) to describe the level and distribution of digital consumer skills in Germany and b) to explore the experience and behaviour of users of comparison and mediation platforms on the internet. The data form an empirical basis for an expert report by the German Council of Economic Experts on the situation of consumers.

The survey was conducted in August and September 2020 by means of computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) by forsa marplan Markt- und Mediaforschungsgesellschaft mbH (Frankfurt). A total of 1,501 German-speaking persons aged 18 and over living in private households in the Federal Republic of Germany were interviewed. The respondents were selected using the dual-frame approach based on the ADM sampling system for telephone surveys. Part of the survey was directed at people who had used comparison and brokerage platforms for comparing offers in one of three sectors (travel, insurance, telecommunications) in the past three months; these were selected from the sample using quota selection.

The survey focuses on internet use, a knowledge test to determine digital consumer competencies, self-assessments of consumer competencies, use of the internet for comparing offers and prices, behaviour and experience when using comparison and brokerage platforms (especially information behaviour), socio-demographics.<br>1. Digital literacy: general internet use; frequency of internet use for selected services; knowledge test to determine digital consumer competences based on various statements (e.g. reliability of information from search engines, different results by different search engines, consumer rights for online purchases, etc.); self-assessment of competences in the scope with the internet overall and in individual areas.

2. Comparison of providers on the internet: Time of the last search on the internet for offers or prices from different providers for a product or service and comparing these offers and prices; options used for comparing offers for a specific product or service on the internet (e.g. search in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, pure price comparison sites such as billiger.de or guenstiger.de, websites of test institutes e.g. Test.de. Finanztest, Ökotest, etc.); type of pure comparison platforms used; comparison and brokerage platforms with ordering function facilitate decision for a provider; reasons for facilitated decision for a provider (open); reasons for more difficult decision for a provider (open); reasons for non-use of comparison and brokerage platforms (open); booking or contract concluded when using comparison and brokerage platforms (open); reasons why no booking or no contract was concluded (open); trust in comparison and mediation platforms with ordering function; change in trust in these platforms within the last 5 years.

3. Mediation portals in detail: time of last use of comparison and mediation platforms for offers from different sectors and areas (travel, energy, insurance, telecommunications, loans or investments, other area); use of comparison and mediation platforms for comparison in the area of travel, energy, insurance, telecommunications, loans or investments or other area; other area (open mention); during the last search, the offers were only compared or also booked or a contract was concluded; first list of results changed or adjusted by sorting according to a new criterion or using a filter; reasons for adjusting the list of results (open); certain that offer is the best or also booked or concluded a contract; reasons for uncertainty about the results list (open); reasons for uncertainty about the results list (open) concluded a contract; first list of results changed or adjusted by sorting according to new criterion or using a filter; reasons for adjusting the list of results (open mention); certain that offer is the best; reasons for uncertainty as to whether offer is the best; information behaviour on the comparison platform about the following things: How and with what the comparison portal earns its money, whether a contract is concluded with the provider or the platform if one chooses one of the offers found, whether and how the comparison portal cooperates with other portals or the providers found, how completely the offers existing for the service as a whole are taken into account by the platform at all, how the order resp. the user ratings of the listed offers; information on these questions was sufficient or further information is required; reasons why the respondent did not obtain information on the aforementioned questions; estimated percentage of the offers existing for the service as a whole that are taken into account at all by comparison platforms.

Demography: gender; age; year of birth; highest level of education; household size; number of persons in the household aged 18 and over; number of landline telephone numbers through which the household can be reached; number of mobile telephone numbers through which the respondent can be reached privately in person; net household income (grouped); federal state; city size; size of BIK town; BIK regions.

Additionally coded were: Serial number; index of digital consumer competence; age groups; education (low, medium, high); household size; household net income; spatial category region (north, east, south, west); general internet use; self-assessment of internet use (very/very secure, rather/very insecure); frequency of internet use (daily, weekly, rarely/never); buying, booking, ordering on the internet; selling on the internet; thematic area (travel, insurance, telecommunications, energy, loans or investments, other); weighting factor.