UK consumers are biggest online shoppers
By Gemma Taylor 04:49PM - Wed 14th December 2011
The UK has been described as “a nation of online shoppers” in a report published today which reveals that more consumers here use the internet for purchases than other major countries.
Regulator Ofcom has published the findings via its sixth International Communications Market Report which looks at global communications availability and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio in 17 countries.
Internet users in the UK spend more time on retail websites than those in other countries, with 89 per cent having done so in 2011.
Shopping via smartphones has proved similarly popular, as 46 per cent of UK internet users spent via their phones in October this year, higher than in all the other countries surveyed.
While many UK retailers are focusing on their social media strategy to entice fans of their brands and encourage dialogue with customers, it is Italy that leads the way in this, with 91 per cent of Italians surveyed ever having visited a social networking site and 24 per cent visiting over five times a day, while in the UK 79 per cent have ever visited with one in five visit them over five times a day.
However, the UK leads on the total proportion of advertising spent on the internet with 29 per cent, almost double the level for global internet advertising of 15 per cent.
It seems that British pricing has outperformed other countries too, as Ofcom analysed a typical ‘basket’ of communications services including mobile phone, broadband and pay TV in July 2011 in the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Britain offered the lowest prices for all five baskets based on buying services individually and four of the five baskets when including multi-service ‘bundles’.
Overall, the price of mobile phone services in the UK were 36 per cent lower than in the next least expensive country, France, and were ten per cent lower than the year before.
“Across the globe people are embracing e-commerce and social media with enthusiasm,” Ofcom CEO Ed Richards commented.
“Our research shows that the UK communications market is performing well with prices, the range of services and innovation standing up well against international benchmarks.
“There are also issues which we will monitor carefully, such as the future roll-out 4G mobile services. We are pressing ahead with plans to release this valuable spectrum at the end of next year which will enable new mobile services for consumers.”
While Ofcom’s report, which gathers together data from several different sources, champions the rise of m-commerce, Keith Brown, Managing Director of mobile phone payment solutions firm Paythru, warns that a short-sighted view of the trend could be damaging.
Brown explains that concentrating on mobile could cost revenues through other channels, with some shopping experiences not adaptable for small screen and many consumer still not owning smartphones, and points to research which says that 40 per cent of people abandon mobile sites due to problems completing transactions.
“Unlike e-commerce, the real opportunity with m-commerce comes from increasing customer value and loyalty by understanding their unique purchasing behaviour from practically anywhere: in the food aisle, at the dinner table, standing in a queue or walking down a street,” he added.
“This in turn allows businesses to use mobile phones to create powerfully unique shopping experiences online or offline.”