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Consumers will spend £1.1 trillion online this year

Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 10:13 by Graham Miller

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The global power of the e-commerce market is growing rapidly, with analysts at Juniper Research revealing that over the course of 2015, it is expected that sales will have passed the £1 trillion mark.

This represents a rise of almost a fifth compared with 2014, indicating that the popularity of shopping online is still gathering momentum, both in emerging markets as well as mature economies like the UK.

Analysts went on to look at the impact that smartphones are having on e-commerce, with current estimates suggesting that around 40 per cent of all sales made online by the end of the decade will be carried out via portable handsets.

This still means that there will be room in the industry for the use of other devices, including tablet PCs, desktop machines and laptops. But because people can enjoy safe shopping online while on the move, thanks to their smartphones, there is less reason to rely solely on a single platform.

Even with the success of online sales, it seems that there is still room in the UK for bricks and mortar brands to create a buzz, according to a recent survey conducted by YouGov.

Aldi ranked as the most talked-about brand in the country, with consumers hearing positive things about this budget supermarket chain. Lidl took second place, so with both companies on the brink of launching their own e-commerce services, there could be even more growth for each to enjoy.

Also in the top 10 brands covered by the study were John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, meaning people are still keen on companies which offer both an in-store and online retail experience. The hype surrounding Amazon’s recent Prime Day promotion, followed by the derision some of the offers generated among an online audience, is a good example of how even pure play e-commerce operators can get it wrong.