UK first in Europe for e-commerce spending

It is no seceret that British people love to shop but recent research by e-commerce specialists FACT-Finder indicate that the U.K, Germany and France account for almost three-quarters of on-line sales in Europe.

As reported in a recent article on Internet Retailing, FACT-Finder has released figures that show the majority, 70%, of on-line sales originate from just three countries:

U.K: $64.1bn German: $52.4bn France: $33.4bn

These figures prove that, despite their geographical closeness, their cultural differences and diversities mean that Europe cannot be viewed as a single entity from an e-commerce point of view. This means cross-border trading can be a challenge and many retailers choose to focus on trading locally. Even ad campaigns don't translate, culturally or literally, across multiple countries because brands, and stores, differ from country to country. Think of perennial TV favorite Lynx, commonly known on the Continent as Axe.

While the infrastructure may be in place to support international e-commerce in Europe, it can still take a considerable investment in time and money to understand the intricacies of trading abroad. In many cases this leads to companies not taking advantage of these expanded markets and solely focussing on local trade.

Ofcom research indicates that British Internet users made more than double the number of on-line purchases in the past six months than Internet users in any other European country, except Poland (19 and 14 on-line purchases respectively). The next country was Germany with nine purchases.

In addition, the total value of online purchases Internet users said they made in the past six months was highest in the U.K. with $1,624. This was nearly double the amount spent by Internet users in the next-placed country, Germany, with $938.

Mathias Duda, head of UK operations at FACT-Finder, said: “The growth of ecommerce has made it much easier for even small brands and retailers to trade outside their domestic markets."

He added: “We hope others will find this report enlightening and perhaps start a conversation about how retailers see themselves in the European market and consider how cross-border trading might be improved.”