UK consumers biggest online shoppers in Europe

Last year, UK consumers accounted for nearly a third of Europe’s total online shopping, with an average spend of 1,118 euros over the year, followed by German and the Nordic countries.

The report by PostNord, a leading supplier of communications and logistics solutions, charting the e-buying habits and preferences of Europeans, found that in the past year, 253 million European consumers made online purchases to a total value of 189 billion euros, an increase of 9 billion euros on the previous year.

With British consumers spending 56.4 billion euros shopping online, almost a third (29.8 percent) of Europe’s total spending. With those British consumers stating that delivery cost is one of the most important factors when shopping online, followed by a choice of delivery options, and speed of delivery.

The report also reveals that 176 million of those consumers buy online from abroad, an increase of 17 million in a year, with the UK and Germany topping the list of most popular e-commerce distributors.

Online purchases of clothing and footwear are becoming increasingly common in all markets across Europe, especially in the Nordics the report notes, where the proportion who have purchased items in this product category online has risen by 10 percent compared to the preceding year. Belgium is also taking a big step upwards with an increase of 9 percent. While the UK and Germany still dominate with more than 60 percent of respondents stating they had bought clothing or footwear online in the past year.