Ecommerce Grows as Online Sales Increase by 20% in the UK

Online, October 20, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The latest figures released from Capgemini and IMRG show that the ecommerce industry in the UK has had its best month for 13 years. Figures show that online sales were up 20 percent in September compared to the same period in 2012.

The preceding months saw a more conservative increase of 13 percent; however, as the Christmas period approaches we could see an all time high for the months of November and December. Whilst online shopping is breaking records, the high street is suffering with more and more store closures.

M-commerce growth has had a major impact with reports showing that sales are up by 150% in September. Smartphones are increasingly becoming the shopping hardware of choice, helping significantly towards the success of shopping online.

IMRG also found that the average basket values were at their highest for 15 months.

John Lewis has predicted a 'Mobile Christmas'. Mark Lewis, online director of the retail outlet said the prediction was based on figures showing mobiles made up almost 50% of all traffic to the company's website on Christmas Day last year. He added, "Mobile is set to be the shining star of Christmas 2013"

"Shopping is becoming much more of a social experience with people browsing and sharing ideas with others using their mobile phones and tablets. We expect this to increase dramatically during the festive period".

Stores such as John Lewis are not alone in seeing significant customer shopping trends, whether it is via a desktop device or via a Smartphone, consumers are increasingly using the web to pick up their weekly shopping, rather than heading to the supermarkets.
The Daily Mail reports that on a regular basis a fifth of people in the UK buy their weekly groceries online, while the global average is under 10%.

There is no doubt that the UK is leading the way when it comes to online shopping, ecommerce is a booming market and it is essential that more and more retailers harness the web.

These latest figures are not surprising, taking the large cities out of the equation for a minute; we can all walk down our local high streets and see that shops are closed or closing down. Our local high streets are becoming 'pound shop' towns and unless we are prepared to travel to nearby city centers or large retail towns, then unfortunately, we will shop online more and more, and is just one factor of many as to why we do not bother making any effort to nip into our local town centers.

There are still many consumers that combine high street retail with online shopping, however, there's a large proportion of people that are purchasing everything online.

The question is how long it will be before the majority of us switch to online for everything.