The brand new RetailX UK500 report has looked at the online shopping habits of UK consumers, finding not only do 43% buy online once a month but also 40% say subscription options are important.
Asked which services they had used in the previous year, 6.2% said they had always paid extra for next day delivery, while 15.5% did so most of the time and 36.9% some of the time. 5.6% always paid extra for same-day delivery, 11.2% most of the time and 29.2% some of the time.
Sustainability matters to many UK shoppers. 50.1% agree that they would pay more for products that were produced and transported in an environmentally friendly way, with 15.5% strongly agreeing. Just over 70% agree that the ecological impact of purchases needs to be clearer to shoppers, with 20.1% agreeing strongly. Environmentally friendly packaging is important to 69.4% of shoppers and very important to 22.4%.
Understanding what devices and channels shoppers tend to use when buying helps retailers to design how they sell. UK shoppers most commonly use mobile devices, with 87.1% using these to buy online all (33.5%), most (33.5%) or some (20.1%) of the time. Laptops (used all, some or most of the time by 65.2%) are also popular with most. 40% of UK respondents say they use their phones to research products before they make a major purchase, while 26.7% make and manage regular orders through their phones.
However, only 15.9% say they will buy a product that appears in a mobile app notification. Mobile is also a primary tool for accessing social media, with 28.2% saying they’ll buy from a social media posts, while 29.4% are influenced by TV advertising. Asked how influential channels are when buying a new item of clothing, 9.9% say they are very influential and 17.2% say they are somewhat important to their decision making.
Asked about future technologies, UK shoppers appear less likely than shoppers in seven other global ecommerce markets to expect their favourite brands to offer retail services through the metaverse – a firm expectation for 10.8% – live shopping (25.5%), voice shopping (17.2%), through social media (18.6%), through a virtual shopping assistant (25.5%) or augmented reality (22.4%).
This is an excerpt from the 11th edition of the UK500 report. The wider report lists the 500 leading ecommerce and multichannel retailers, brands and marketplaces that sell to the UK market.
Going beyond simple turnover or traffic, the UK500 measures how these businesses deliver value across the entire retail ecosystem, taking into account evolving consumer behaviour, economic headwinds and disruptive technologies such as AI.
Subscribe!
Our editor carefully curates two InternetRetailing newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. In addition to this, there is a dedictaed mailer focusing on the subscription economy with detailed commentary from Heyl every second Wednesday – click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter.
And why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis.
