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UK leads Europe in internet shopping

UK shoppers lead Europe in ecommerce, Government statistics have confirmed.

An E-Society report, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), found that 66% of UK adults aged between 16 and 74, quizzed in 2009, had bought online in the previous year. That was followed by Denmark (64%), and the Netherlands (63%). Bottom of the table were Bulgaria and Romania, with 5% and 2% respectively.

ONS figures also showed that the value of internet retail sales in Great Britain rose from an average weekly value of £169.3m in November 2006 to £446.1m in July 2010. By July 2010, internet sales made up 8% of the country’s total retail sales.

Between 2006 and 2009, the proportion of UK online shoppers grew from 45% to 66% of the adult population. The largest change over the period was in France, where 22% of adults shopped online in 2006 and 45% did so in 2009.

The figures also showed that in 2010, 19.2m UK households, or 73%, had internet access, up from 57% in 2006. In 2009, 69% of UK households had broadband access. The highest proportion of broadband-connected households was in Sweden (79%), followed by the Netherlands (77%) and Denmark (76%).

Of those UK households without access, 39% said they did not need it, while 21% cited a lack of skills in the household and 20% said they didn’t want it.

And when it came to what they used the internet for, in 2009 30% said they or someone else in the household had access to a social networking site and 20% said they had used a mobile phone to access the internet.

Some 97% of internet users aged 16-24 had used the internet in the previous three months – and were most likely to use it every day or almost every day (82%). Of those aged 65 and over, 32% used it every day or almost every day, and 59% used it every day or almost every day.

The report said: “Over three-quarters (78%) of those who had access the internet in the three months prior to interview had done so every day or almost every day, while a fifth (17%) had accessed it at least once a week but not every day.”