Report says European online shopping is ‘thriving’

The IMRG campaign organisers will be encouraged by a distinct note of optimism in online research company Forrester’s latest report.

It confidently asserts that European e-tailing is thriving, despite the headline-grabbing dot-com demise. And it predicts that European e-tailers will reap 103bn (£63bn) in gross profit over the next four and a half years. For the year 2006 the survey predicts profits of 152bn (£94bn).

“While retailers fear media reports of dying dot-coms will erode demand for online shopping, the data tells a different story,” says Forrester senior analyst Julia Woodham-Smith. “During the last six months of 2000, as dot-coms crashed, the share of Europeans online grew by 20 per cent, to 32 per cent of the adult population.

In the UK and Germany, the percentage of consumers online reached 40 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.

Consumers still in their first year of Internet use spent E134 (£82) on average on their last online purchase; those online for 13 to 24 months spent 150 (£92); and online shoppers with more than 24 months experience spent 176 (£108). Forrester says the upward trend applies to all European countries.