According to the United Kingdom B2C Ecommerce report from the Ecommerce Foundation, the growth rate is the same as in 2013, while in the last two years the growth rate was much lower. In 2016, 82% of internet users in the UK shopped online.
The total number of online shoppers in the UK increased to over 57 million, after the industry increased by 14.6 and 10.9% in respectively 2014 and 2015. For 2017, the Ecommerce Foundation and IMRG forecast a growth of 13.4%. This mean, ecommerce in the UK will be worth EUR 197 billion at the end of 2017.
The department stores experienced almost 20% growth in online sales, more than food (14.1%) or household good stores (11.8%).
Almost half of respondents very frequently purchased books online and 57% of consumers in the UK are willing to buy books exclusively online. Other product categories often purchased online are electronics, household equipment and fashion. When it comes to purchasing food online, about one in four respondents (22%) said they do this always or very often.
Another interesting data from the report is that 15% of enterprises (larger than 10 FTE) have made B2C ecommerce sales in 2016, the same as in 2015.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now