Ten per cent of retail sales now online

By Steve Malone

Posted on 25 May 2006 at 11:00

The British online retail market is now estimated to be worth around £30 billion a year. The figure represents 10 per cent of all retail shopping in the UK according to a new survey published by the e-tailers trade body IMRG. The report also claims that a further £20 billion worth of other spending is carried out online.

The growth in Internet buying over the past few years has been dramatic. According to IMRG, the growth in year-on-year sales for the past six months has been 45 per cent, which equates to a total growth of some 2,000 per cent over the past six years.

In addition, another £30 billion of offline retail sales are influenced by Internet research or by information found via the Internet. According to the report, everyone who took part in the survey said that they use the Internet to research home appliances prior to buying in a High Street store. For consumer electronics, the figure was 94 per cent, furniture 54 per cent and travel 44 per cent.

Unsurprisingly the numbers are even higher for those who buy online. All respondents said they did research online prior to buying music and the figure is 81 per cent for books and 70 per cent for travel.

The boom looks to continue for the immediate future. According to the survey of 4,000 respondents, 52 expect to reduce their High Street spending this year. At the same time, 45 per cent say they will increase the amount of buying online.

The steep growth in Internet sales has mirrored the growing switch towards broadband services. According to Government statistics, now almost 70 per cent of Internet connections in the UK are via broadband connections.

The most popular online retailers measured by the number of visits are Amazon UK, Dell, Argus and Tesco. Amazon gets another bite of the cherry with Amazon.com at number six while the low cost airlines EasyJet and RyanAir are at eight and nine. British Airways is not far behind at 11.