Online shopping: an increase in spending in the UK

 

As we would have expected, online shopping has been on the rise during the lockdown. A new research has shown that in 2020 consumers in the UK spent more time on the Internet using their PC, smartphones, or tablets, in comparison to other European countries.

The study also showed that sales conducted on the Web grew by 48% to reach nearly £113 billion. In 2019, the amount recorded was £76.1 billion. This was a result of the closing of high street stores. According to the data, food and drink retailers saw the biggest increase in transactions. These grew by 82% in comparison to the year before. With people being stuck at home, they had to purchase their essential items at home itself and to cater to consumers’ demands, supermarkets expanded their capacity to process digital orders.

As such, online food delivery services were also able to benefit from this change. For instance, Just Eat revealed that it was visited by nearly 10 million people in December 2020 and its UK orders were 58% higher in comparison to the same period in 2019.

Another online shopping category that also experienced a surge is household goods which grew by 76%, following an increase in interest in home improvement.


 UK consumers spend more time online © Royalty-free image

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