European online retail spending will rise by 160% year on year this Christmas season, reaching a value of ₏4.1 billion, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
Just under a quarter of all European online sales for the year will take place in December. The UK leads the way, with consumers accounting for 34% of total online retail in Europe, with a ₏1.4 billion spend. For UK online spend this represents a 116% growth.
Between January and October this year, 24% more Germans visited the web than during the same period last year; there were 31% more Britons and 35% more French online. However, Forrester notes that new users of the web are less likely than established users to make online purchases. The report says that only 12% of users buy online in their first six months of use; this rises to 25% of users with one to two years’ experience.
Many of the 34% of UK consumers who connected to the Net in August 2000, will make their first online purchase this season, says Forrester.
