More and more people in the UK are becoming comfortable with the Internet, according to a new study. Usage remains far short of 100 percent, but approximately 60.5 percent of the population ventured online at least one per month in 2007, and a full 62.6 percent should do so this year.
The next several years also look good, according to eMarketer. Around 42.8 million of the UK’s citizens, or 69.5 percent of its population, should go online at least once a month in 2012.
This increase is bound to have a big effect on ecommerce. UK sales rose from $55.6 billion in 2006 to $84.0 billion in 2007, and should reach $155.6 billion by 2011’s end. Also, in 2011, ecommerce sales in the UK will make up 38.3 percent of such sales throughout Europe.
Businesspeople who haven’t made some effort to include or target the UK could obviously do well to change their plans for the future. Even companies that are already active in the area should remember to reach out to fresh users.
Finally, eMarketer’s Karin von Abrams hinted at what sort of ventures will do best. “The UK’s Internet shoppers favor the same kinds of sites as online buyers in the US and other European countries,” she said. “But they must be big readers – both Amazon UK and Amazon.com were in a recent list of top 10 most-visited shopping sites.”
