The UK has put the rest of Europe in the shade by being identified as Europe’s top online spenders. Research from the Centre of Retail Research working in conjunction price comparison site Kelkoo has found that the UK accounted for almost one third of the whole of Europe’s online sales in 2009 with an estimated spend of a staggering £38bn.
These findings are even more impressive as the UK were seen as one of the countries worst hit by economic downturn and a decline in consumer spending had been widely predicted. This also makes very good reading for ecommerce businesses as it has been found that online spending has grown by 12% which has lead to predictions of further growth in 2010 and an estimated spend of £42.7bn. This continued growth has demonstrated consumer confidence is high and that people are becoming less weary about shopping online as anti-fraud devices have become increasingly sophisticated.
UK accounted for almost one third of an estimated £38bn spent online
Following up from the UK were Germany and France in second and third place respectively and in total all three nations accounted for %70 of the total online sales in Europe.
As the UK is now ‘recession free’ it will be interesting to see the rate of growth in online spending through 2010 as the figures could be mind blowing. It also highlights once again how consumer behavior is changing in the UK and that online shopping no longer plays second fiddle to offline…