During Christmas 2009, online sales helped create 5,000 jobs (whilst helping to preserve 50,000 retail jobs) at major multi channel retailers, a bonus for an industry that had experienced 40,000+ job losses since 2008. According to IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index shoppers in the UK spent between £5bn and £8bn, whilst shoppers in France spent €7bn online during Christmas 2009.
UK online shoppers spent a total of £38bn online in 2009 compared to £30bn in 2006, with a high proportion of Britons being satisfied with online shopping. The massive growth in ecommerce spend can be seen when looking at Verdict Research’s prediction back in 2007 that UK e-tailing in 2011 would be worth £28bn, with UK e-tailing already worth £38bn maybe the Forrester UK eCommerce Forecast 2006 – 2011 (made in 2007) that UK Online spend will be about £50bn in 2011 will also be surpassed.
Estimates suggest that there were between 40 million and 48.7 million UK Internet users in 2009 of these the ONS reports that 37.4 million adults had accessed the Internet, 2008 saw a total of 38.1 million users, emarketer suggests in 2007 there were 36.8 million users, whilst in 2006 there were approximately 30.9 million UK Internet users.
The ONS Omnibus Survey estimates that 18.3 million households in the UK (70 per cent) had Internet access in 2009. London had the highest level of access with 80%, whilst in Scotland 62% of households had access. Of those households with Internet access 90% had a broadband connection in 2009.
Current data shows the US has 227 million Internet users and China has 360 million users. There are approximately 402 million Internet users in Europe of those 150 million are online shoppers, France has 42 million users (with a £22bn spent online in 2009), Germany 55 million users (with £29.7bn spent online in 2009), Italy has 29 million users and Spain has 28 million Internet users.
Uniqlo is a succesful international casual clothing fashion retailer with multi channel presence, it’s online store has helped it to experience strong sales retail trading in 2009, the innovative HeatTech clothes range sold very well during December. Visit Uniqlo for the latest fashion styles in designer menswear clothing and womenswear clothing. Read the Uniqlo Case Study here.
Tags: e-tailing, etailer, Internet numbers, Internet statistics, UK online shopping, UNIQLO
About the author: Vic Ramlaul
SEO Executive – Vic RamlaulVic is an SEO Executive at 4Ps Marketing. His work combines SEO, Social Media and Blog contributions. He enjoys working in the digital industry and keeping up to date with the latest technical developments.