UK Holiday Shoppers Moving Online
UK shoppers are shifting their holiday shopping online in a big way this year, according to new reports.
In its Christmas Retail Survey 2007, Deloitte says 66% of all consumers will use the Internet for holiday shopping, with 14% doing most of their spending online, up from 7% last year. This is equivalent to £2.1 billion in sales, while total holiday spending is projected to reach £33.6 billion. This is driven by a significant increase in the planned spending on socializing, estimated at £6.8 billion and food and drink at an estimated £8.9 billion. Spending on gifts is expected to increase 2% to £18.3 billion.
Meanwhile, Experian company Hitwise reports a 22.4%. rise in online visits to all shopping and classifieds sites during November compared with October. This contrasts with a report from another Experian company, Footfall, showing instore shopping is lagging 2006 by 3% through November. Last month the November Retail FootFall Index (RFI) rose 6.4% from October, the highest month-on-month rise in shopper numbers this year but the boost is later than expected and overall numbers are still trailing behind 2006.
Our research suggests that the relatively poor show on the high street is due to shifting channel choice rather than declines in spending. The boom in online activity shows that UK consumers are still determined to celebrate this Christmas.
ComScore reports the UK online retail sector attracted 29 million unique visitors in October 2007, up 11% from last year, and amounting to 89 % of the country’s total online user base in that month.
The most popular property was eBay, which attracted 22.2 million unique visitors or 68% of the UK’s total Internet audience. eBay was followed by another pure play online retailer, Amazon, which attracted 14.3 million unique visitors to gain a 44% reach. The highest ranking multi-channel retail property was Apple Inc, with 10.5 million unique visitors.
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