Americans embrace e-commerce in 2012

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - 15:29 by Mike Price

Figures published by comScore have shown that US consumers spent 15 per cent more via safe shopping online, over the course of last year, than they did during 2011.

That means the total spend was $186.2 billion ((117.8 billion) and the growth rate for e-commerce was higher than it has been since the credit crunch first hit in 2008.

Analyst, Gian Gulgoni, said that a troubled economy and general instability was not enough to derail the explosion of safe shopping online, which is occurring stateside.

Gulgoni said that American shoppers are particularly encouraged by the lower price of e-commerce, combined with the convenience and broader selection of products that it offers.

Interestingly, the analysts found that online retail actually performed a little below expectations during the run up to the festive season, with sales not quite matching earlier predictions.

However, Gulgoni pointed out that this was down to a temporary bout of lower market confidence amongst consumers caused by the fiscal cliff fiasco, which means there is good potential for growth going forwards into 2013.

Overall, Americans spent about 10 per cent of their total retail budget online in 2012 across most major categories, with only food and fuel remaining far stronger in the bricks and mortar market, for obvious reasons.

Each American buyer who uses e-commerce sites to make purchases last year spent an average of eight per cent more than they did in 2011, while there were six per cent more buyers on the market to help bolster growth.

The US is still a little behind the UK when it comes to relative e-commerce adoption, as British consumers are operating within a culture that has taken to safe shopping online with relish and continues to help the market expand at very significant rates.