A quarter of European adults research next purchase online

While more than half of European online adults still don’t regularly buy products or services over the net, a quarter use it to research their next purchase before going in-store, according to a new study from Forrester.

The research – which analysed over 22,000 consumers across seven European countries – demonstrates an “important opportunity” for retailers in Europe, according to Forrester analyst, Michelle Beeson.

“To ensure customers do not turn to their competitors after researching with them online, retailers must optimise the entire purchase journey, not just online sales, and deliver a unified experience across multiple devices,” said Beeson, citing Argos as one of several UK retailers that allow customers to check stock availability in a particular store and reserve items online for payment and collection in-store.

The findings revealed that the UK has the greatest proportion of ‘traditional web shoppers’ (31%) – consumers who regularly buy online through traditional devices, such as desktops and laptops – while Italy was found to have the largest proportion of ‘super-shoppers’ (20%), which are consumers who regularly buy online through traditional devices as well as mobile devices.

Two-thirds of French shoppers do not regularly research or buy online.

Online shopping is expected to grow by almost 50% over the next five years to be worth over £50 billion by 2018.