UK retail trends analysed

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 09:16 by Sarah Collinson

A new study from IMRG and eDigitalResearch has looked at the ways in which UK consumers are spending their cash, concluding that while e-commerce and m-commerce are increasingly popular, there are still problem areas where growth is stagnant.

Almost 6,000 people took part in the survey and it was discovered that 61 per cent of respondents will be getting online via their mobile phones with increasing frequency over the coming year.

Forty-nine per cent of those who are adopting mobiles as a means of web browsing will be using safe shopping online to buy products from their phones in the next 12 months.

Christmas is always a significant period for retailers and 35 per cent of those questioned said that they would be shopping on their smartphones in the run-up to the festive season.

Across all mediums which enable safe shopping online, the increase in activity is thought to be around 19 per cent based on the findings of the report.

A third of those questioned said that they would buy roughly half of all their presents for Christmas 2011 via e-commerce or m-commerce. Meanwhile a quarter said that 75 per cent of their purchases would be web-based this Christmas.

Spokesperson Derek Eccleston, said that Christmas 2011 would be a real defining moment for m-commerce as a surge in UK usage is anticipated.

When asked what the main benefits of online shopping were, 46 per cent of those surveyed said that cheaper prices were top of the agenda. The increase in emphasis on value is notable as in the same study conducted in 2010, just five per cent said they went online for bargain basement prices.

Almost a fifth of respondents said that they were reliant on the internet to help their limited budgets stretch further during the festivities, although grocery sales are likely to remain an in-store favourite this year.