The development of a host of interactive services is expected to push forward a strong growth in sales for the online retail market, according to new report from Fletcher Research. UK Online Retail: From Minority To Mainstream, shows that interactive (digital) television and mobile phones will help online retailers take 7.5% of the UKÂÂ’s retail sales by 2005. This is a huge rise from the quarter percent for which online accounted just last year. In value terms, online retail is predicted to grow from £1.7 billion this year to £20 billion in five yearsÂÂ’ time.
The most popular online retail sectors at present are computer products and travel; the latter is already worth £490 million. The sale of books from the likes of Amazon and BOL is also a strong market. Fletcher expects that the increase in interactive technologies will act as a catalyst to the growth of these markets. Open, a digital TV based shopping service, has already turned in strong sales figures in what are early days for interactive shopping systems.
Personalisation of services is also expected to increase over the coming years, according FletcherÂÂ’s analysts. Around 80% of websites surveyed currently use cookies to record user information, but only around a quarter of these sites over personalisation to the user.
