On-line shopping is growing 26 times faster than the High
Street, says the e-retail industry association, which has found
that large numbers of consumers are switching to e-commerce,
especially for high-ticket discretionary purchases such as LCD TVs
and digital cameras, because of the convenience, the huge choice
available, rich information and significant savings that the
internet can offer.
At present, says IMRG, 21 million Britons – half the population
– shop on-line and 85% of them (18 million) plan to shop on-line
for presents this year, spending an average of £220 each.
This increased interest in internet shopping means that for the
first time European on-line Christmas sales are predicted to
overtake those in the US. According to figures from Forrester
Research quoted by IMRG, on-line holiday sales in Western Europe
will increase by 44% over the last year to bring in €13bn compared
to $13bn (€10bn) in the US.
The UK is responsible for a third of these European sales,
followed by Germany with 29%, then Italy and Spain, with 4%
each.
Predicted hot sellers, according to shopping search engine
Kelkoo, are home entertainment products, with consoles and games
being top of the list. DVD recorders, digital cameras and MP3
players are also popular.
The top 10 most searched for brands are, says Kelkoo: iPod,
Playstation, Nokia, Freeview, xbox, Sony, Samsung, Nike, Timberland
and Toshiba.
IMRG also reports good news for the on-line arms of several high
street retailers – quoting data from internet traffic monitoring
service, Hitwise, that reveals that half of the top 20 UK retail
web sites belong to bricks and mortar retailers.
In addition, the top three web sites belonging to high street
retailers have all boosted their traffic significantly over the
past few weeks, with Argos, Tesco, and Comet all increasing their
market share within the retail sector by at least 40% since the
beginning of October.
The on-line retail sector in the UK has reached its highest ever
share of internet traffic, surpassing 15% of all on-line visits,
says IMRG. At the same time last year, market share of visits to
on-line shopping sites was just 12%.
