E-commerce growth reaches 13 year high

Friday, October 18, 2013 - 10:49 by Simon Crisp

The latest figures from IMRG and Capgemini, show that the UK's e-commerce industry experienced its best month of growth for 13 years in September, with sales up by 20 percent compared to the same month in 2012.

Month on month, the increase was a slightly more modest 13 percent, but this is still a positive step for the wealth of sites offering shopping online to British consumers.

M-commerce growth was even more pronounced, with sales up by 150 percent, year on year, in September. This smartphone-obsessed nation of shoppers is helping to reshape the way that retail operates.

Although safe shopping online is popular, it currently accounts for just 10 percent of the entire retail industry in the UK. Experts believe that this could increase to 20 percent or more by the end of the decade, which shows that strong and persistent growth is still on the cards.

Part of the reason for such a significant online spend existing in the UK is that consumers not only buy a wide variety of products, like electronics and clothing, but are also increasingly using the web to pick up their weekly shop, rather than heading to supermarkets.

About a fifth of people buy their groceries online on a regular basis in the UK, while the global average for this activity is under 10 percent, according to the Daily Mail.

The UK remains a leader when it comes to online shopping, with its blossoming e-commerce market helping to encourage more retailers and businesses to establish themselves in the web space.

Plenty of people like to combine both high street retail and online shopping, to make the most out of the available services, although a growing proportion of the population is buying everything online, which could signal further changes.