The
popularity of online shopping in the UK shows no signs of slowing, with average
spending per household rising 16% in 2012 to £1,175, more than twice the level
in France and nearly ten times spending in Italy, Ofcom said today. Consumers in
the UK also order goods online more often than shoppers in any of the 17
countries surveyed by the telecoms regulators for its annual International
Communications Report that it publishes in December.
Some 73% of respondents in the survey bought items online at least monthly, Ofcom said, and 24% weekly, ahead of second and third-placed Japan and Germany.
The regulator asked, in 9,070 interviews conducted in September and October this year, why Britons were more likely to shop online. Price and ease of shopping experience appear to be the reasons we are increasingly abandoning the high street for online portals. In the UK, 59% cited "it saves me money" when asked why they were spending more money via the web. A total of 58% said it was "easier".
Trust in online retailers seems to have also fuelled the boom. Almost three-quarters of those in the UK (70%) said they felt "secure when paying for products online", compared to 62% in the US - the second highest - just 38% in France and 29% in Japan.
The survey also found that the UK had the cheapest mobile phone deals, with prices half or more than half the level found in Germany, Spain and the US. It is also cheapest for fixed-line broadband, but it was beaten in landline deals by Germany and Italy.
James Thickett, Ofcom's director of research and market development, said: "The UK is by quite a long way the place where people spend most online. There are a number of reasons for this. We have a long history of catalogue shopping in the UK.
"What this has done is that we trust people to deliver parcels, and we're used to getting parcels delivered to our homes and we're used to using credit cards. It's part of our DNA".
Some 73% of respondents in the survey bought items online at least monthly, Ofcom said, and 24% weekly, ahead of second and third-placed Japan and Germany.
The regulator asked, in 9,070 interviews conducted in September and October this year, why Britons were more likely to shop online. Price and ease of shopping experience appear to be the reasons we are increasingly abandoning the high street for online portals. In the UK, 59% cited "it saves me money" when asked why they were spending more money via the web. A total of 58% said it was "easier".
Trust in online retailers seems to have also fuelled the boom. Almost three-quarters of those in the UK (70%) said they felt "secure when paying for products online", compared to 62% in the US - the second highest - just 38% in France and 29% in Japan.
The survey also found that the UK had the cheapest mobile phone deals, with prices half or more than half the level found in Germany, Spain and the US. It is also cheapest for fixed-line broadband, but it was beaten in landline deals by Germany and Italy.
James Thickett, Ofcom's director of research and market development, said: "The UK is by quite a long way the place where people spend most online. There are a number of reasons for this. We have a long history of catalogue shopping in the UK.
"What this has done is that we trust people to deliver parcels, and we're used to getting parcels delivered to our homes and we're used to using credit cards. It's part of our DNA".
NamNews - Thursday 12th December 2013
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