November e-commerce spend of 10 billion pounds confirmed

Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - 12:05 by Graham Miller

British consumers spent a total of £10.1 billion via safe shopping online over the course of November, according to new figures from IMRG Capgemini.

This is a 10 per cent year on year increase and comes at a time when the high street has seen a three per cent dip in footfall, indicating that people are happier shopping from home or via a portable device than ever before.

Consumer electronics helped to generate the significant increase in online spending, with sales of gadgets and gizmos up by 63 per cent. Homeware and gardening items were also a popular e-commerce purchase, with a 42 per cent sales boost recorded.

The problems for the high street are even more intense when looking at London, where visitor numbers dropped by 4.1 per cent in the past month.

Report spokesperson, Chris Webster, said that shopping online is the main catalyst for growth in the retail market, although pinpointed a number of problems which have occurred in the e-commerce industry in recent weeks.

Waitrose was the latest company to suffer an IT glitch, which meant that 200 customers did not get their shopping delivered over the weekend, as scheduled.

Thankfully, such hiccups are a rarity and the vast majority of people who order something online within the allotted timeframe can expect to receive it before December 25th this year.

A 20 per cent boost in retail sales is anticipated for the coming weekend, which will see people splash out £12 billion, both online and in-store, as the Christmas break approaches.

While there was some concern over consumer confidence, it seems that online shopping is helping people to invest their cash frugally, while still getting all of the products and services that they need at the end of 2013.