Despite fears of a slowdown in the UK economy, internet shopping levels have soared to new heights in the run up to Christmas. According to figures from the Internet Media Retail Group, internet sales are projected to finish December at £7.4 billion. This represents a phenomenal increase of 106% on the same month in 2006.
At 1.09pm on Monday 10th December came the most lucrative minute in the history of UK online shopping history highest when a massive £767,500 was spent in a single minute. Amazon claim to have been processing in the region of an impressive three quarters of a million orders per day in recent weeks.
Paradoxically, Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium, believes that fear of economic slowdown is the reason for the sharp increase in UK internet shopping levels.
“Customers are under more pressure this year to make their money go further, which I think is behind the slowdown on the high street. Many find a better bargain online.”
He also believes that the increase in online shopping is good for both consumers and retailers.
“Not only does it mean you don’t have to go out into the cold, it also offers a bigger range of choice, both in terms of product and price. The whole world is suddenly opened up to shoppers. While this can be damaging for some smaller stores who don’t sell their products online, for the rest it increases the size of their potential market so that anyone in the world can see and buy their products.”
The significant shift towards shopping online this Christmas has proven problematic for the postal service and courier firms who have been trying to cope with delivery of the 120 million items bought online (up from 100 million in 2006) in the run up to the festive period.
According to Consumer Direct, the Government-funded advice service, complaints about non-delivery or late arrival of goods has increased by almost one third.
Just 4 days before Christmas, Marks & Spencer sent this email out to some of its online customers:
“The recent order you placed with us is unlikely to arrive before Christmas due to our delivery carrier restrictions in reaching key geographical areas within the UK. We appreciate that if the order was needed for Christmas this will be frustrating for you and would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause. We now expect your order to arrive during the first week of January 2008.”
However, M&S claim that this email was sent only to a “tiny” number of customers, “More than 99 per cent of goods arrive on time,” a spokesman added.
Wed, Dec 26, 2007, by Peter Archbold
Web Talk