Britons Top The List Of Biggest Online Shoppers

It was quite surprising to read today that Britons are champions in online shopping, with e-commerce in the UK having more admirers than any other major country.

UK consumers spent 14% more on e-commerce last year compared to 2010, with the average Briton allocating £1,083 to buy a product online, a sum that proved the highest in media regulator Ofcom’s ranking. Australians came second in terms of online shopping spend with £842 per head on average, followed by Sweden with £747.

These are findings from Ofcom’s report, which gathered information about Internet shopping across 17 markets, including the US, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Sweden, France and Germany. The research also found that Britons turn to their smartphones and tablets to search the web and watch TV online more often than any of the world’s major economies.

UK consumers also emerged as the biggest fans of on-the-go shopping, as the research showed that more than 23% of them go to a retail website via their devices. This is the highest percentage identified by Ofcom among the five biggest European nations, with Germany coming second with 22.6%.

The UK also topped the list of countries (for the first time) for the volume of data downloaded on smartphones and tablets and was also the nation boasting the highest smartphone adoption level (58%). Currently, 51% of Britons turn to their laptops to surf the Internet, which is quite above the rate identified among Americans (36%) for instance, the lowest in Ofcom’s ranking. Just 37% of UK consumers use their desktop to go online and 6% rely on their smartphones to access the web.