UK consumers shop online during working hours

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 10:27 by Sarah Collinson

Various reports have looked at the e-commerce habits of British shoppers when they are at work, but the results of a new survey published by car insurance company, Sheila's Wheels, have shown that weekday spending is actually through the roof.

Each year, the average person can be expected to spend 3,687 through sites offering safe shopping online, while they are at work.

That equates to about 314 a month and over the course of 2013, means that people will be paying out roughly 14 per cent of their annual salaries via the web.

Just over half of those questioned said that they visit an e-commerce site at least once a day while at work, with 45 per cent claiming that they fill up their lunch breaks with safe shopping online.

1pm on Friday afternoons is the UK's preferred period for work-based e-commerce activities, just ahead of 12.45pm on a Monday.

Fifty two per cent of respondents said that they used the web to buy gifts and cards, while 51 per cent said that games and DVDs were their more commonly purchased items.

While the average weekly online spend for women was found to be 68, men were actually the bigger spenders, with a typical outlay of 86 every seven days.

The main reason given by those questioned for their work-based shopping habits was that they have to be in the office long hours and so cannot indulge their retail desires at any other time.

Thirty nine per cent even said that they shopped online while at work because they were a bit bored, while a quarter claimed that e-commerce allowed them to procrastinate rather than get on with something productive.

With buying opportunities always available through internet-enabled devices, UK consumers are spending more time and money on the web than ever.