Britons Spend 32% Of Shopping Budgets Online

It is common knowledge that Britons are avid online shoppers. Other European nations may spend more money online but UK consumers channel 32% of their shopping budgets into e-commerce transactions and that is the highest proportion on the continent, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) said in its latest Mediascope Europe report.

The second place is occupied by German Internet users, who spend 25.4% of their shopping budgets online. Between September 2011 and February 2012, European e-sales generated EUR188bn, with the average spend per online shopper amounting to EUR544. Norwegians came on top with an average bill of EUR1,162, while Britons ranked fourth with EUR765, the IAB Europe said.

The industry association polled more than 50,000 Europeans across 28 countries, noting in its report that 96% of Internet users do product research online, 87% shop via the Internet and 19% conduct all their shopping activities online. For 51% of the sample, the Internet was a helpful tool for choosing better products and services, 47% said they were likely to seek additional information about products advertised online and 46% stated that they made frequent visits to the website of their favourite brand.

Among the key findings of the study were the large proportion of Europeans employing at least two devices to access the web and the rise in simultaneous media use.

The IAB Europe established that 426.9m people get online every week, translating into a penetration rate of 65%, and 37% do so by means of more than one device. Almost half of European netizens (48%) watch television while browsing the Internet, suggesting that companies which fail to adapt to evolving media consumption patterns stand little chance, if any, of future success.