UK Flying the Flag for Ecommerce

Ecommerce is continuing to go from strength to strength right across Europe. According to statistics from COMSTORE, last year saw 270 million unique users visit an online retail site in January alone. These figures are promising for the EU. As early as 2010, the EU announced its drive to improve and accelerate European internet use through its Digital Agenda scheme. Amongst the Digital Agenda’s key aims were improving broadband availability, converting more people into regular internet users and improving ecommerce figures. In regards to these aims, the EU has made remarkable improvements right across the board and nowhere are these improvements more visible than in the UK.
Impressive UK Ecommerce Figures
Figures from the Centre of Retail Research tell us that European ecommerce brought in a collective £169,880 bn with the UK accounting for £50.34 bn of this sum alone. This is even more impressive when it is considered that its nearest competitor, Germany, lagged behind this amount by £12.16 bn.
Other stats from the EU’s own site tell us that whilst across the EU, the average of the population shopping online is just 40%, within Britain it is a whopping 67%. Britain’s online retailing success is due partly to how readily available broadband services are to the population and with government plans to further improve the availability and speed of broadband, yet more growth can be expected.
What does Ecommerce do for the UK?
The short answer is a great deal. The internet is not going away and it has been suggested that over the course of the next decade the internet will either influence or enable around 90% of retail sales. Ecommerce is bolstering Britain’s economy although this is hardly a surprise when it is considered that British retailers make up a third of the total cross border trade within the EU on top of producing year on year domestic e-retail growth of around 14%.
Britain’s online drive is also leading to job creation; it is estimated that there will be 1.5 million UK staff working in ecommerce by 2015.
What’s Happening in 2012?
The good news is that forecasts for this year continue to be very promising. Across the EU we can expect to see an overall average growth of 16.1% with the UK remaining the overall leader with an impressive 14% growth forecast. These figures again come from the CRR and after they predicted last year’s increase to the tee, it seems they can be trusted.
If you want any tips on how your company can contribute to Britain’s booming online retail sector, talk to us at Yoma, our ecommerce experts will be only too glad to point you in the right direction.