The number of online shoppers prepared to spend more than £1,000 on web transactions hit a quarter last year, according to research commissioned by Kelkoo.
Consumer confidence rises for spending big online
The number of online shoppers prepared to spend more than £1,000 on web transactions doubled last year, according to research commissioned by Kelkoo. The price comparison site worked with the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) on the study which also found UK online transactions accounted for a third of all web purchases in Europe. This puts the UK ahead of any other European country for online shopping with consumers spending £38 billion online in 2009. Sales over the internet now account for almost 10% of total retail sales, the CRR research found. The finding that more people are prepared to spend higher amounts online will be good news for travel companies which generally trade in higher value products. Internet shopping was also predicted to grow sharply this year rising to £42.7 billion. Kelkoo managing director Bruce Fair said: “This year is when we will really start to see online sales achieving a significant share of overall retail trade in the UK. “In these hard times, it is no surprise that shoppers are turning to the internet rather than the high street, especially when you consider that purchasing items online can result in savings of 20% or more.” After the British the Germans were the next biggest online spenders in Europe racking up £29.7billion in sales and then came the French who spent £22billion.
