The UK leads Europe in online shopping, according to
market researcherMintelin its latestreport on e-commercein the UK,
Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
The research found UK online sales were worth £12.8bn last year,
compared to just £9.24bn in Germany, the next largest market.
France (£5bn), Italy (£780m) and Spain (£710m) lag the top two.
The UK also showed the fastest growth, soaring 75% between 2005
and 2007. However, France matched the UK growth rate.
"The UK has far and away the most developed online market in
Europe," said Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel.
"The main reason is the sophisticated online offering of the UK's
food retailers and the fact that so many Britons now do their
weekly shop online. The consumer boom of the last few years has
also undoubtedly played a key role, when British shoppers were
always keen to spend their cash."
Perks predicted in future Spain will see the largest growth,
from just £710m last year to £3bn by 2012. France will jump
three-fold from £5bn to £15,2bn over the next five years, and the
UK will grow 200% to hit £40bn by 2012.
Although it is the largest European country, Germany will lag
the leaders but still grow 69%, Perks said. This was because high
street retailers had been slow to take up the internet, and credit
cards are relatively unpopular, he said.
Mail order businesses have been the big winners, Perks said.
"Amazon is the only pureplay
internet retailer in the top 10 retailers, but five of the top 10
are mail order groups that have developed their e-commerce
operations to stem the decline of traditional big book mail order
and reduce overheads," he said.
Amazon is the third-largest online retailer, with Germany's
Otto and Arcandor
first and second. Tesco is the
largest online food retailer in Europe, and more than twice the
size of the next-largest, Carrefour's
ooshop.com run by Carrefour.
Mintel excluded eBay as it is a conduit from one consumer to
another.