Brits outspend other global consumers in online marketplace

Friday, April 21, 2017 - 10:12 by Graham Miller

A new report from the UK Cards Association suggests that average UK households spend more online than their counterparts in other countries globally, according to BBC News.

The typical annual online spend per household is the equivalent of £4,611 for Brits, which is much higher than the £4,216 average recorded in Norway, or indeed the £3,513 in America.

Analysts claimed that the UK was blazing a trail for safe shopping online thanks to a number of factors, including the widespread use of payment cards and the speed with which products can be ordered and delivered nationally.

Last year transactions totalling £154 billion were conducted online via payment cards, which is a 25 per cent increase compared with 2014. This upwards trend is expected to continue for as long as the market maintains momentum.

Interestingly, a quarter of the purchases people made with payment cards through e-commerce sites last year were for entertainment-related items. This includes everything from digital music to tickets to see bands play live.

The majority of tickets purchased for concerts, theatre performances and even the cinema are now sought out online rather than snapped up in person, which is unsurprising given the ease with which they can be acquired.

Furthermore, ticketing services have embraced digital tech, allowing people to use their smartphones as a stand-in for physical tickets.

Conversely, there are other parts of the retail market where there is still a lot of online growth still to come, most notably in the grocery sector. In-store shopping still trumps online spending in the UK at the moment, even with its global lead in this area.

Britain has long been seen as being at the forefront of e-commerce innovation, but there are areas in which improvements still need to be made, from convenience to security.