Shoppers trudge to the online shops
Whilst all around us we hear of recession, doom and gloom in the high street and red “SALE” signs in every shop window, Reuters have announced that online sales between UK businesses and consumers hit a cool £60 billion for 2008, an increase of 28% on last year.
£60 billion is a startling figure, but what is more impressive is the fact that this has grown 28% on the previous year. That’s a huge jump and one, if it continues into future years, that will signal a dramatic change to the nature of our shopping centres, all across Britain.
It seems a combination of increased users, user confidence (both in navigating the web and trust in online security), convenience, price and service, as well as an overall improvement in e-commerce sites, have all contributed to make the web the place to do business.
How far will online consumer spending get and how will this affect the traditional marketplace? Will users discard the high street and out of town shopping centres for the comfort of their own homes? More and more, I think they will.
However, man is a compulsive, impatient beast (the web must shoulder some of the blame for this.) He wants his shopping and he wants it now. Until online stores can do same day delivery (some can), the high street and shopping centre will always have their place in the shopper’s life.
If you have a business that sells to a consumer, never has their been a better time to get your business online and taking a slice of this lucrative pie.
To read the Reuters report go to http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS126048+18-Sep-2008+BW20080918
Tags: 2008 ecommerce, £60 billion UK B2C sales, online shopping
