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Online retail is growing at a much faster rate than in-store sales, new research has claimed. According to the second annual PayPal Online Retail Report, undertaken by Experian, retail sales via the internet are set to increase in value by £8 billion between now and the end of 2012, while store retail should increase by £3.3 billion.
If e-tail does expand as predicted, the web would account for 10.4 per cent of total retail sales. This means more than one in every £10 spent in the UK would be via the internet.
Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK, said: “Online retail is booming even in the current economic uncertainty because shoppers turn to the internet when they are trying to be thrifty.
“Two-thirds of online shoppers are now convinced their money goes further online compared to less than half who believed it last year, an increase of 8.5 million people.”
He described online retail as the “silver lining in the economic crisis”.
Meanwhile, retail analyst at accountancy and business advisory firm BDO, Jamie Talmage, has called the online sales channel as “the real engine of growth for most retailers”. However, he suggested that blurring the boundaries between channels, such as allowing customers to order online and pick up in store, is the next important step businesses in the industry must take.
