Britain Is A Nation of Online Shoppers, Says Ofcom

Britain has become a nation of online shoppers that turn to the internet to buy goods far more than other nations.

The UK spent £74 billion online in 2012, second only to the US in a survey by Ofcom, and spend more per head than all the nations surveyed.

Adjusting for population size, the UK had the highest spend per head of all the countries in the survey, at £1,175 in 2012. That is £307 higher than the second highest country, Australia, and more than twice as high as the £560 average among all the countries surveyed in Europe, Asia and North and South America.

The UK's spend per head increased 16 per cent compared to 2011 and has been the highest of any other country in the past three years.

The report said people in the UK were the most frequent online shoppers in its global survey with almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of the online population in the UK - defined as 44.6 million poeple - buying goods for delivery over the internet at least on a monthly basis.

It found that almost one quarter (24 per cent) shop online at least every week, if not more often. People in the UK are more likely to trust online retailers. Japan was the second highest, at 19 per cent, then Germany, 17 per cent, and Australia at 15 per cent.

More than eight in ten of respondents in the UK (83 per cent) agreed that they trust online retailers to ship them the correct item and four in five (80 per cent) agreed they trusted online retailers to advertise products accurately.

The UK still has a high proportion of shoppers who get their online orders delivered at home - 90 per cent. This was similar across most countries in Ofcom's survey. The country least like to opt for home delivery was France, at 72 per cent, where the incumbent postal provider La Poste has installed electronic lockers where people can both send and collect their items. 

About 20 per cent of shoppers in France choose this delivery method.

In Australia and Spain, people were more likely to have items delivered to the post office 
(9 per cent and 5 per cent respectively) and in Italy 7 per cent of online shoppers opted to have their online purchases delivered to a friend or family member's address.

The survey also revealed a detailed picture of broadband, smartphone and fixed-line usage across Europe, Asia and North and South America.

It revealed that 15 per cent of UK fixed broadband connections were superfast at the end of 2012. This was the fifth highest proportion among Ofcom's comparator countries, after Japan (64 per cent), the Netherlands (35 per cent), Sweden (29 per cent) and Australia (20 per cent).

But it was the highest proportion among the EU5 countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

Smartphone ownership is now commonplace among the comparator countries. Excluding Japan, which has a very high take up of advanced featurephones not readily available in other countries, the US was the only country to report a smartphone take-up level of less than 50 per cent. The majority of respondents in all other countries reported that they now use a smartphone. Take-up in the UK was 66 per cent.

Ofcom also said the UK remained the country where the greatest share of all advertising spend was on the internet, with 36 per cent of advertising being attributed to the sector in 2012.

The UK had the greatest spend per head on mobile advertising, rising by almost £5 per person to £8.04 in 2012. That made 2012 the first year on record where Japan was not the highest spending country on mobile advertising per head of population.

Japan had the second highest spend, rising by about a pound to £7.50, while the US had the second highest absolute growth of £3.52, and the third highest spend at £6.74 per head.