The average UK online shopper spends £559 a month via the internet – more than £6,000 a year in total, a new study suggests.
Men, according to the Tryzens study, UK Online Shopping Consumer Preferences, spend more at an average of £686 a month, while women spend an average of £475 a month. But both shop at a similar frequency, with 66% of women making a purchase in a week, and 63% of men.
The study questioned 1,000 UK consumers to study their online shopping preferences by gender, age, income level and geography.
It found that the most significant online spend was on food, at an average cost of £132 a month, followed by travel, fashion, electronics and homewares, and that peak online shopping hours are between 6pm and 8pm, according to 29% of participants, while the next highest period (21%) is between 8pm and 10pm.
The most active shoppers, found the study, are aged between 26 and 45. Those earning more than £45,000 also tend to be the most active. But lower earners, on between £10,000 and £15,000, spend as much as 40% of their gross income online, while those earning between £60,000 and £100,000 spend about 14%.
“The UK is a clear leader in the field of enabling transition from traditional in-store and catalogue based sales to online shopping,” said Andy Burton, chief executive of Tryzens. “This has been fuelled by a strong economy, a large population in a relatively small geographic area, and a renowned capability for innovation and invention.”
“We are clearly working in a time of dynamic transition to a new level of convenience for consumers. Consumer expectations are increasing and confidence in online experience is driving growth in online shopping online, where people now assume to be able to access goods how, when and where they want; when international boundaries are more about culture and tax than trade restrictions, and the content of ‘global’ becomes the new norm for sourcing the right product at the right price.”
Tryzens says the research has uncovered Generation Consumer, offering a “tremendous opportunity” for engagement.
