British consumers amongst most active online buyers
A report by the Centre for Retail Research has confirmed that UK shoppers spent far more online than anybody else in Europe in 2009. Indeed UK online shopping accounted for around one third of all online purchases within Europe which equates to a figure of £30 billion. The average spend per shopper in the UK was over £1,100 in 2009 with expectations that this will increase further in 2010.
The Centre for Retail Research believes that UK online spending could hit a massive £42.7 billion in 2010. Online sales accounted for around 10% of all retail sales in the UK in 2009 and again this figure is expected to increase dramatically in 2010. It seems a mixture of discounts, promotions and the accessibility factor have come together to create a shopping heaven for many consumers across the UK.
The long-term problem for high street shops is the fact that they find it very difficult to compete with online operations purely on cost because of their own relatively high cost base. As a consequence of the increase in online spending we are likely to see a number of UK retailers go out of business in 2010 until some form of equilibrium is reached.
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