Europeans to spend €52bn online this Christmas
By FashionUnited
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At present, the UK represents over 30% of European online sales. The UK market is arguably the most sophisticated and competitive in the world, recording 18% growth in 2010. European and international customers are more and more purchasing from UK online retailers.
According to IMR, €17.5bn of this (almost 30%) will be spent in the first two weeks of December alone, which over the past two years have been identified by IMRG as the peak activity weeks. These peaks will follow a steady increase in activity throughout November.
Aad Weening, Head of International at IMRG comments, “We have introduced the IMRWorld European e-Christmas Sales Forecast to track and trace online trade, which is rapidly becoming a key indicator of consumer confidence. Looking at Europe as a whole, there are marked differences in online shopping between the North and South, as well as between the East and West: this is because internet penetration and online shopping are more mature in the North, so the sales volumes tend to be higher while the annual growth rate is lower; meanwhile, basket sizes tend to be larger and more valuable in Eastern European countries, especially in Russia, reflecting the greater affluence of their consumers.”
The number of people shopping online varies from country to country.
For example, only 23% of Polish consumers currently shop online, whereas 50% of Germans and Spanish, 60% of French and Italians and over 70% of British, Dutch and Scandinavians are expected to purchase goods via the internet this Christmas. In coming years the rapid and almost universal adoption of mobile internet will lead to many millions more shopping online.
James Roper, Chairman of IMRWorld and CEO of the UK e-commerce association, IMRG, comments: “The UK accounts for almost a third of all European e-commerce, and a growing number of European and international customers are buying from UK sites, encouraged by the huge choice of goods available and beneficial currency exchange rates.
Image: Online shopping