According to a survey by e-commerce comparison site BagThat.com, UK shoppers do 32 per cent of all their shopping online. However, when asked how much they believe they will do in future, the amount increases to 45 per cent overall.
Some 10 per cent of people say they don’t ever shop online, falling to just 6 per cent in the 18-34 year old age range. Almost a third (29 per cent) of Londoners say they do more than half online compared to only 18 per cent in the North of England and Scotland.
The study also reveals that more than a quarter of people under 34 share a purchase they have made on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter and 65 per cent are more likely to make to purchase if they receive a recommendation on social media.
Forty-three per cent of shoppers on average and 54 per cent of those under 34 say they rely on friends’ recommendations the most as opposed to 10 per cent who rely on a parent, and 5 per cent that rely on work colleagues.
Andy Sutton, founder and CEO of BagThat says, ‘We believe that social shopping is the future. Without thinking about it, we all take advantage of volume purchases in our everyday lives, whether it’s those three for two offers in supermarkets or bulk buying at the local cash and carry, but rarely do we as individual consumers get the chance to benefit from volume purchases on quality, branded goods.
‘British shoppers are all individually buying the same products, and in the context of the difficult economic climate and this socially connected world, it makes sense for people to get together and collectively buy products if it means getting a much better deal.’
