The study, conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, forecasts that online sales in the US will grow by 15% in 2014 to £189.3 billion, while in Europe sales are expected to rise by 18% to £131.2 billion.
The UK, France, and Germany are projected to be responsible for the bulk of this growth in Europe, accounting for 81% of the online sales in the eight European markets expected in 2014.
The UK is the largest market in Europe, with sales of £38.8 billion 2013, and is expected to account for more than a third (34%) of all online retail sales in the eight European markets surveyed in 2014. The report forecasts that £45 billion will be spent online in the UK in 2014 – an increase of 16% on online consumer spend compared to the previous year.
Commenting on the results, Giulio Montemagno, SVP of International at RetailMeNot, said: “While the e-commerce sector is continuing to grow rapidly, we are starting to see the German, the UK and the US markets mature as shopping online becomes a commonplace activity. Today, growth is being mainly driven by an increase in the frequency of consumers shopping online and spending more money through online channels while, in previous years, e-commerce growth came primarily from an ever-growing number of first time online shoppers.
“In 2014, we are expecting to see online sales across Europe grow at a rate that is 11.9 times faster than in-store sales. In the UK, online retail is expected to increase by 15.8% this year, while the offline segment will grow by only 2.4%. With such a competitive retail environment it’s more important than ever that retailers look to mobile devices and the web to incentivise shoppers to make purchases online and in-store.
“Successful retailers will consider the Internet not as a threat but as a powerful complement which can help them increase their sales.”
Growth in online shopping spend and frequency
The report shows that 46% of Europeans and 55% of Americans now shop online. Online shopping is particularly popular in Sweden and the UK where more than two-thirds of the population make purchases on the web: 71% of Swedes and 67% of Brits use the internet to shop. While growing, online shopping is less popular in southern Europe: one in five people shop online in Italy (20%), while one in three (32%) use the Internet to shop in Spain. Around half of people in France (52%), Poland (51%), Netherlands (49%) and Germany (45%) shop online.
The study, which includes phone interviews of 100 major retailers and 9,000 consumers, reveals that most consumers expect to shop online at least once a month in 2014. On average, European shoppers will make 15.2 online purchases this year with a typical basket size of £49, while American shoppers will make 15.6 online purchases, with an average spend of £71. In the UK, shoppers are expected to make 18.0 purchases online this year, spending an average of £59 each time.
Throughout 2014, European shoppers are expected to spend £749 online, an increase of 18% compared to 2013, while American shoppers are expected to spend £1,106 online, on average – 14.4% more than in 2013. In the UK, shoppers are expected to spend £1,071 on the web this year – 15.8% more than last year.
Online retailers accounted for 6.3% of all retail sales in Europe in 2013 and 10.6% in the US, and in 2014, this share is set to grow to 7.2% and 11.6%, respectively. In the UK, the research found that the internet accounted for 12.1% of all retail sales last year and this is expected to grow to 13.5% in 2014.