UK tops Europe for online shopping sales

The UK is well ahead of its European counterparts when it comes to online shopping, with sales reaching €18.5bn (£12.8bn) last year, according to Mintel.

The company analysed internet retailing across five countries including the UK, Germany and France.

Germany was the second biggest online spender with sales reaching €13bn (£12.8bn) last year.

Meanwhile France (€7bn, £5.6bn), Italy (€1.1bn, £874m) and Spain (€1bn, £794m) lagged behind the two biggest markets......

Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel, said, "The UK has by far and away the most developed online market in Europe. The main reason for this, is the sophisticated online offering of the UK's food retailers and the fact that so many of us now more than happy to turn to the internet to do our weekly shop."

The research also found the largest European online retailer was German firm Otto Group. Pure play retailer Amazon was third.

Perks added, "Amazon is the only pureplay internet retailer in the top ten, while five of the top ten retailers are mail order groups that have developed their ecommerce operations as a means of stemming the decline of traditional big book mail order and reducing overheads."

www.nma.co.uk Suzanne Bearne 2008-03-31