British Shopping Online

Tuesday 13th of April 2010 10:14:43 PM

British Shopping Online

The British are proving they love to shop online as more than 50% of shoppers turn to the internet in February 2010 for the first time. That number continued to grow too as reported by IMRG which tracks e-commerce activity. The British Population Survey actually meets with those people surveyed and attempts to reach representative group of shoppers in all age groups and socio-economic status. The goal is to document online shopping habits of consumers so retailers can better serve customers as they shop for everything from flowers to t-shirts.

From now on the percentage of online shoppers in the United Kingdom will be reported through a number called the e-shopper Index. The index will be released by IMRG and will continue to be calculated from the British Population Survey. The Chief Executive of IMRG is James Roper. He told Fashion United-UK that, “This first British Population Survey E-Shopping Report provides vital new insight into online consumers, whose demand for shopping is the real driver of the e-retail phenomenon. It is only ten years since the very first consumer broadband connection was made available – just days after the dotcom bubble burst and most of the business world concluded that e-retail was hype and finished - since when the value of UK online shopping had grown more than 6,000 percent. This huge growth is due almost entirely to consumers’ eagerness to embrace the convenience, choice and savings that e-retail offers them, yet relatively little detailed information about them has been available until now in terms of how their age, regional location and social demographic influences their behaviour. The BPS provides a wonderful new window on the world of e-commerce.”

Fashion United also spoke with Mike Hare who is the Research Director of The British Population Survey. He added to Roper’s comments by saying, “Recent technology developments, particularly in the area of ‘roaming’ access via both laptops and hand held devices, are clearly playing a part in the development of the availability and convenience of Online Shopping services. This has been particularly evidenced by an increase in laptop ownership from 34.15% of households in March 2008 to 53.03% in March 2010”