4 in 5 Brits shop online, ONS says

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Oct 6, 2015

According to the Office for National Statistics, Brits are the biggest online shoppers in Europe, with 79% of UK consumers making an online purchase in 2014.

There has been a huge increase in online shopping over the past decade - in 2005, just 44% of Brits shopped online. After the UK, the countries where the most people buy goods online are Denmark (78%), Norway (77%), Sweden (75%) and Luxembourg (74%.)

In the UK, e-commerce accounted for 20% of business turnover in 2013, up from 16% in 2009 and above the EU average of 15%. It puts the UK as the third joint highest in the EU, behind the Republic of Ireland (52%) and the Czech Republic (29%), and joint with Hungary (20%).

The UK is following an EU trend that sees an increase in the proportion of e-commerce turnover in relation to total turnover. However, the ONS said there are a number of obstacles that can limit a business from selling via a website. Across the EU, the most notable is that the goods and services are not suitable.