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UK is online shopping capital of europe with 4 out of 5 buying products online

Britain is the online shopping capital of Europe with four out of five British adults buying items from the internet, compared to just over half of adults across the EU 



Eurostat | Europe in statistics - economy, society and environment



  • Shoppers in Denmark, Luxembourg and Germany were next on the list

  • British shoppers are the most likely to buy household goods and toys

  • Older people in Britain were the most likely to have shopped online 




older people 65 to 74  were most likely to have shopped online in the UK  



Britain is the online shopping capital of Europe, official figures showed.
More than four out of five British adults have bought items from the internet, compared to just over half of adults across the European Union as a whole.


Shoppers in Denmark, Luxembourg and Germany were the next most likely to buy online, while those in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Italy were the least likely.




70 % of e-buyers reported to have no problem when purchasing online

Seven e-buyers out of ten reported that they did not encounter any problem when buying or ordering goods or services in the previous 12 months. The problems encountered most often by EU online shoppers were related to slower delivery than had been indicated at the time of making the purchase (16 %). Some 12 % had problems in the form of technical failure of a website while ordering or paying, 8 % had received wrong or damaged goods/services, almost 5 % had difficulties in finding information on guarantees and other legal rights, 4 % found it difficult to make complaints or seek redress, or did not receive a satisfactory response to a complaint. About 3 % of online shoppers in each case were confronted with final costs higher than indicated (e.g. higher delivery costs), foreign retailers not selling to customers in their country and problems with fraud (e.g. no goods/services received at all, misuse of credit card details) 


Figures from the EU statistics agency Eurostat showed Britons were the biggest internet buyers of clothes, with three quarters of online shoppers in this country having bought them in the last year.
British shoppers were also the most likely to buy household goods and toys, while Danish shoppers were most likely to buy holidays and event tickets.






Older people in Britain were the most likely to have shopped online and the UK was one of just six EU countries where more than half of internet users aged 65 to 74 had bought goods online.



Among EU internet users who made no online purchases this year, three quarters said it was because they preferred to shop in person, while one in four were concerned about payment security and privacy.

Most e-buyers in the EU seemed satisfied with their online purchases and seven out of ten encountered no problems buying online.




The most popular items bought over internet were clothes and sports goods, which were ordered by 60 per cent of e-buyers, followed by travel and holiday accommodation, and household goods and toys.


E-commerce statistics for individuals



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