Latest Research Shows How Huge Online Retail Really Is

Monday, March 22, 2010 - 12:21 by Paul Tissington

Whilst many of us do some safe shopping online on a regular basis and have embraced online retail as a part of our lives, it is easy to forget that only a few years ago, there were hardly any e-Retailers around. In fact, back in the early nineties, not even two decades ago, the idea of online retailers was some way from being realised. It was in 1994 when the first UK-based online retailers became established. Today, there are some 150,000 online retailers in the UK alone.

These latest figures on the state of online retail come from e-Retail industry community the IMRG, which regularly publishes reports on key trends and statistics. The Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR) in the e-Retail sector has been at 19% since 1994, but it was in the last decade that safe shopping online really started to take off. The latest IMRG research shows that of 160 e-Retail businesses questioned, 83% had been established since the start of the year 2000 and 3% of those surveyed had started trading in the past year.

With the online retail sector now responsible for over half a million jobs in the UK, industry experts were quick to highlight the positive impact of e-Retail on the UK's economy, pointing out that online retail provides not only opportunities for consumers to secure products at advantageous pricing but also how the sector contributes significantly to the overall state of the economy.

And should the growth rate of the e-Retail remain at roughly 19%, experts predict that by 2013, there will be one million jobs within the sector and a further two million will be created by the year 2020. To support these projections, when questioned as to staffing plans, 39% of those surveyed said that they are likely to be recruiting again within the next few months.