Over 50% of UK population to shop online by 2013
Over half the UK population will shop online by 2013, according to a new report from eMarketer.
The number of online shoppers in the UK will hit 31.8 million by 2013, up from 26.9 million this year, the research firm said.
The report predicts that 72.5% of all web users will shop online this year, with this proportion increasing to 75.7% by 2013.
The biggest change in shopping habits due to the recession has come from 14-17-year-olds, the research shows.
Karin Von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer, said, “Parental control and a relative lack of credit will curb the discretionary spending of consumers aged 14-17.
“Online buying by these younger web users will pick up again in 2011 as the economy improves.”
However, earlier this year Hitwise research found that UK internet users were spending less of their online time shopping and more time browsing online media.
During March 2009, 8.6% of all UK internet visits went to online retail websites and 9.8% to social networking websites.