UK is the country who spends more online

The UK Cards Association last report reveals that online shoppers in the UK spend more than consumers in any other country.

The top online retailers in the UK

Online shopping is growing year by year. In 2016, £154 billion was spent on the internet, what makes Britain the home of online shopping.

The latest figures from the Interactive Media in Retail Group, or IMRG, show that during the last year, online sales went up 16%, compared to 2015.

This significant increase of online retail was intensified by the continued growth of sales made on smartphones. This way of shopping expands the times and places in which customers can access online retailers by using their mobile apps.

Credit: IMRG.

Statistics from the IMRG show that from the last quarter of 2016, 40% of all online sales were made via mobile devices, compared to shopping from a laptop or desktop (see infographic). There has been a significant growth by comparing these numbers to seven years ago.

The online retail association helps online retailers to improve their performance. It has been tracking online sales since 2000, and works with companies like Amazon, eBay, ASOS, Google, Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

“Our main role is to measure the market and benchmark retailers in a series of metrics to help them understand their performance,” said Andy Mulcahy, editor of IMRG who has worked in the industry since 2010. The firm also runs events, conferences and forums to facilitate sharing best practice and insight.

Credit: IMRG.

According to the IMRG, the “estimate annual UK e-Retail spend” has been increasing every year since its existence. From the last year available, the graphic shows that the e-Retail spend has been more than £100 billion in 2014.

Comfortable with technology

When e-commerce started in the 1990s, the main sector was electronics. “It was people who were comfortable with technology who were buying things, and much of it was computer hardware,” said Mulcahy.

Electronics is still popular, but the clothing industry has been a big driver of growth in online sales. Other sectors are now starting to gain popularity, such as online grocery shopping.

“Food has been a bit slower to get up and running, but the major supermarkets have made a significant investment in supporting it,” said the editor of IMRG.

The way people are buying food is starting to change. In the last Office for National Statistics retail sales report, online food sales were reported to have the fastest growth online, up 12.5% compared to the previous year.

Tesco is on the top 5 of online traffic in retailer’s websites in the UK. This is an easier way of doing the grocery shopping. Tesco offers a one-month delivery plan: people pay £3.50 per month and they do not have to pay for their delivery anymore and they can choose the time slots they want.

Last year, Amazon launched its own online supermarket service in the UK, competing with the big four grocers.

Convenient and comfortable

Buying online is convenient and comfortable, but it makes you miss the whole shopping experience.

That is not a problem for Karol Zubrus, a 29-year-old a finance analyst who lives in East London and loves to buy things online.

Karol Zubrus on his computer looking at Amazon’s website. Picture by Laura Mendes.

“I buy anything online, but especially anything with electronics, or other more expensive items,” he said.

Zubrus spends most of his time at home when not working, he considers himself antisocial and he does not like to be around too many people, which is one of the reasons he prefers to buy things from home.

“There is no need to see or be around people, no need to wait in the queue and all of this can be done online easily,” he said.

“I hate the whole shopping experience. The simplicity of doing it online just makes you comfortable.”

There are advantages and disadvantages of buying online. One of the good things is delivery, it is convenient if the item is heavy - “it just makes life much easier”, said Zubrus.

The disadvantages may be not being able to actually view the item, touch it or try it on, and the risk of receiving something completely different if the item chosen is no longer available.

As a regular online purchaser who receives deliveries every week in his house, Zubrus has experienced this before. “Once I bought a sweater online and it was supposed to be small and at the end it was extra-large.”

Uri Rubio knows the pitfalls of online shopping far too well. The 35-year-old website developer shops at ASOS and Tesco regularly.

Almost every week he does his grocery shopping at Tesco online. He pays for the delivery plan and chooses the time that is more convenient for him.

“Sometimes the delivery gets delayed, it is a bit annoying when I have a meeting and I have to leave the house,” said Rubio. Otherwise, he is satisfied with this method of shopping.

“The good thing is that I do not have to carry lots of bags from the supermarket,” he said.

Returning items

More than half of the online shoppers send at least one item back. These are mostly women’s clothing items.

Ula Kadziolka normally buys at ASOS, she is a 20-year-old shopaholic. She knows very well how to use the benefits of online shopping.

“In all the purchases that I make, I always return something back,” she said.

ASOS offers free delivery and return when someone spends more than £100. What people like Kadziolka does is: they buy what they think they would like - they buy different sizes, different colours, etc; and then when the delivery comes they try everything on and what they do not like they send back and the money is returned to them.

“With ASOS within a week I have the money back on my account,” said Kadziolka.

Independent survey

But despite all the problems, online shopping is not going away anytime soon.

An independent survey with 42 responses shows that almost 62% of these consumers buy clothing online.

Accessories and electronics are the second sectors people spend more money on. Amazon, eBay and ASOS where the top 3 online retailers used by the consumers who replied to the survey.

An interesting figure is that people answered equally about which device they use when buying online, with the same number for using desktop or smartphone.

Take part of the survey for further studies. Click here to access the survey or fill it in below.