A new report from retail property firm, Colliers International, has shown that while online shopping is growing rapidly, the way that people around the world shop and pay for their goods remains very diverse.
The largest European e-commerce market is found in the UK with online sales currently running at around at £130bn annually. British seniors are among the most tech-savvy consumers in the world with 78 per cent of internet users over 65 now shopping online. However, if the British have wholeheartedly embraced online retailing other countries have been slower to move their shopping online. Italians are among the least tech-savvy shoppers in Western Europe. Only 68 per cent have access to the internet and just 26 per cent are shopping online.
The report also looks at how shoppers pay for the purchases around the world.
Cash remains the predominant method of paying for shopping, particularly in China, Russia, Spain, Germany, Poland and Italy. French shoppers use more cheques than any other European nation while consumers in the Netherlands and Sweden are heading slowly towards cashless society.
Other key findings from the report:
- Germany, Spain and Poland are the fastest growing online shoppers in Europe which is rapidly stimulating the development of logistics facilities to support order fulfilment
- The British, Japanese and Spanish spend the most on enjoying themselves, while the Russians and Chinese spend the least.
- 29 per cent of online retail sales in the UK were carried out via mobile devices in 2015. Marks & Spencer report that the number of visits to its website via these devices rose from 7m in 2012, to 80m this year.
- Shoppers in Poland, Russia and Italy appear far less prone to using mobiles to conduct online transactions, despite higher usage/ownership rates.
- UK e-buyers like to make purchases from international online shops, with 56 per cent having bought goods via overseas retail sites in China and the US.
- A quarter of Russian online retail sales are made through cross-border purchases, 80 per cent which are from Chinese websites.
