Internet Retail Shopping Revolution

 

Fashion retailers ASOS, which specialise in versions of celebrity outfits online, posted an 111 percent increase in annual sales. And in March, ASOS recorded its highest traffic levels ever, with more than 2 million visitors to its website.

 

This year internet shopping is expected to reach £42 billion, matching the turnover of Britain’s biggest retailer, supermarket giants Tesco, and shoppers will spend £78 billion a year online by 2010, doubling the web’s share of retail sales to 20%.

 

Over the past six years, internet sales have exploded, growing by 3,553% between April 2000 and December 2006. During that period the monthly value of UK e-retail sales rose from £87m to £3.6 billion. Internet sales were only £800m in 2000, the year of the dotcom boom. However, online purchasing has come a long way since then, and from the first ever secure transaction of a CD in America 13 years ago!

 

According to IMRG, the internet research group, the amount spent online by UK shoppers this year will be equivalent to the sales of nine London West Ends, Britain’s biggest shopping destination.

 

Britain’s 26m internet customers will receive an estimated 860m parcels this year, and on average, online shoppers will splash out £1,600 each in 2007.

 

Online sales were worth £30.2 billion in 2006, up from £19.2 billion in 2005. Sales surpassed expectations in the run-up to Christmas last year when they soared to almost £1 billion during each of the first three weeks of December.

 

IMRG estimates that the global internet shopping marketplace will be worth £250 billion this year.

 

More than a billion people use the internet, equivalent to 17% of the world’s population with almost a third of them living in Europe.

 

IMRG said that cross-border sales would grow sharply over the next few years, providing retailers with a big opportunity to expand their influence, product range and market reach.

 

IMRG said that many people are choosing to research new purchases online even if they don’t eventually buy over the web. However, their is always the temptation to impulse buy when online. Even for products such as garden furniture and clothing, which are not usually popular online, more customers are choosing to research on the web before going into the high street stores.

 

Although consumers often prefer to see items and try on the new products, online shopping certainly wins when it comes to convenience, and as websites become more sophisticated, ordering online, and collecting your items from a distribution point will surely be the next logical step in the internet sales revolution.

 

 

By Martin Huckle