Matt Bullock
06 July 2010
Britons spent an estimated £250 billion in online sales in the last decade, according to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retails Sales index.
In 2001, only 10 percent of Brits were shopping online - but they still spent £1.8 billion. The index has shown a substantial amount of growth since the start of the millennium, with online retail sales in 2010 expected to exceed £56 billion. Those figures indicate a growth of 3,100 percent since 2001, with an average growth of 300 percent per year.
As online shopping becomes more commonplace, online retail sales growth can be reasonably expected to slow. However, the IMRG still expects the industry to grow 110 percent over the next decade.
The data proves that "Britons are passionate about shopping online," said IMRG CEO James Roper. "The combination of ease, convenience and 24/7 access is incredibly compelling."
In 2006, 1.2 million households throughout the UK - 89 percent of all internet users - had a broadband connection, according to statistics from Continental Research. The increase in broadband availability over the years may have played a part in increases in online shopping, as users connected through broadband spend twice as long online as their narrowband counterparts.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that broadband will be in 63.5 percent of all homes worldwide by the end of 2010.
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