UK more important to continental Europe than vice versa

Britain has become a favourite online supermarket for shoppers across the EU, usurping the USA as the second largest market for e-commerce trade in some countries, according to a survey of online consumer habits by European payments company Trustly.

Consumers from Germany are some of the most eager online shoppers for UK goods and services, with 32% of Germans surveyed saying they have bought goods online from the UK in the last 12 months. In Italy (32%) and Sweden (30%), more shoppers bought goods online from the UK than they did anywhere else, except China, and the UK is now the third largest market for e-commerce trade in Spain, and the Netherlands, fast gaining ground on Germany in terms of the value of e- transactions.

However, while Trustly’s ‘State of Online Shopping’ report, published today, demonstrates the strength and pace of UK e-commerce, British shoppers are far less reliant on other EU countries for online goods, preferring to buy from China and the USA.

Further insight from the report shows:

Who UK shoppers buying from – Nearly one in four (38%) UK shoppers have bought something online from another country in the past 12 months. Of those, 45% purchased goods from China, 36% from the USA and 16% from Germany. Other online transactions were made in France (10%) and Spain (6%)

However, most people said they would do more cross-border shopping if they didn’t have to give out their card numbers to unknown foreign merchants (55%) or if they could get refunds quicker and easier (50%). More than half (52%) said the exchange rate was an issue when buying abroad.

What UK shoppers are buying – Nearly six in ten (57%) of us have bought food and beverages online, making these our most frequent purchases by far. 17% of respondents said they have bought food and drink at least 11 times in the last 12 months. Other frequent purchases (more than 11 times in the last 12 months) include subscription services for film and TV (10%), online gambling (10%), clothes, accessories, shoes or jewellery (8%), videos and music (5%) and books newspapers and magazines (5%).

Where the UK’s target markets are – Online shoppers in Germany love to buy British, with 32% of those buying abroad making at least one purchase from the UK in the last 12 months. This makes the UK the second largest destination for online shopping in Germany, after China.

Consumers from all but one of the Continental European countries surveyed said they bought goods more frequently from the UK than they did from the USA. The only exception was France, where online shoppers favourite market was China (37%), followed by Germany (30%) and the USA (20%). The UK trailed fourth with 19% of online shoppers buying from the UK.

The research was conducted by Trustly in collaboration with Nepa, a leading research bureau and the first partner of Facebook operating outside of the US.