UK shoppers will spend £60bn online in 2016, an average of £1,372 per person, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research for offers marketplace RetailMeNot, suggests that multichannel shoppers who buy using a PC and a mobile or tablet computer will spend an average of £1,962 next, some 94%, or £950, ahead of the £1,014 that PC-only shoppers will spend.
In 2014, the centre found, multichannel shoppers spent £1,531. That’s 59%, or £566 more, than PC-only shoppers.
The study also suggests the gap between how much multichannel and PC-only shoppers spend is growing quickly. Shoppers spend, it found, an average of £57.53 on each PC-based transaction, comapred to £51.71 on tablet and £47.01 on smartphones. But PC-only shoppers tend to make fewer transactions, spending less over the course of the year. In 2016, tablet transactions are expected to grow by 5.7% to £54.91, and smartphone transactions by 12.5% to £52.02. Meanwhile, PC transactions are forecast to grow by 2.6% to £60.45.
“Mobile shoppers typically spend longer researching and comparing products before making a purchase, but as the mobile shopping experience improves we are seeing mobile and tablet users shop online more frequently and spend more each time,” said Giulio Montemagno, senior vice president international at RetailMeNot. “Retailers that have been quick off the mark to improve and more efficiently personalise the multichannel shopping experience are now seeing their investment pay off. Comparatively, retailers that have yet to fully embrace mobile and tablet devices are at risk of falling further behind the competition if they do not act quickly.”
The report was based on surveys that interviewed 1,300 retailers, including 250 from the UK, and 5,400 consumers, including 1,000 in the UK. Interviews were carried out in April and May 2015.
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