On-line shopping is growing 26 times faster than the High Street, says the e-retail industry association, which has found that large numbers of consumers are switching to e-commerce, especially for high-ticket discretionary purchases such as LCD TVs and digital cameras, because of the convenience, the huge choice available, rich information and significant savings that the internet can offer.
At present, says IMRG, 21 million Britons – half the population – shop on-line and 85% of them (18 million) plan to shop on-line for presents this year, spending an average of £220 each.
This increased interest in internet shopping means that for the first time European on-line Christmas sales are predicted to overtake those in the US. According to figures from Forrester Research quoted by IMRG, on-line holiday sales in Western Europe will increase by 44% over the last year to bring in €13bn compared to $13bn (€10bn) in the US.
The UK is responsible for a third of these European sales, followed by Germany with 29%, then Italy and Spain, with 4% each.
Predicted hot sellers, according to shopping search engine Kelkoo, are home entertainment products, with consoles and games being top of the list. DVD recorders, digital cameras and MP3 players are also popular.
The top 10 most searched for brands are, says Kelkoo: iPod, Playstation, Nokia, Freeview, xbox, Sony, Samsung, Nike, Timberland and Toshiba.
IMRG also reports good news for the on-line arms of several high street retailers – quoting data from internet traffic monitoring service, Hitwise, that reveals that half of the top 20 UK retail web sites belong to bricks and mortar retailers.
In addition, the top three web sites belonging to high street retailers have all boosted their traffic significantly over the past few weeks, with Argos, Tesco, and Comet all increasing their market share within the retail sector by at least 40% since the beginning of October.
The on-line retail sector in the UK has reached its highest ever share of internet traffic, surpassing 15% of all on-line visits, says IMRG. At the same time last year, market share of visits to on-line shopping sites was just 12%.