ONLINE SALES REACH £100billion

The first online transaction took place 20 years ago today, August 11^th 1994, when online retailer NetMarket sold a copy of the Sting CD Ten Summoner’s Tales for $12.48 plus shipping. Today, online sales are about to hit the £100billion mark as the way we shop continues to change and effect the success of traditional high street shops.

But not all retailers are suffering from the growth in Internet sales; many are now benefiting from increased sales as shoppers use digital media ‘clicks’ to compliment the ‘bricks’ of the retail outlets.

On the BBC this morning a spokesperson from John Lewis reported that online sales accounts for approximate a 1/3rd of sales; 2/3rd shoppers research online and either ‘click & collect’ or shop in store.

The way we shop is also changing; mobile sales are increasing and the time period in which we shop is extending with data showing that more people are using their mobile telephones earlier in the day while later into the evening shoppers browse and buy via tablets such as iPads.

In 2008 53% of adults bought goods online; today 74% of adults have purchased online with, quite surprisingly, clothing being the most popular choice for almost 50% of online shoppers. 64% of all 25 to 34 year olds buy clothes this way according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS):

9 out of 10 adults aged 25-34 and 40% of 65+ have shopped online.

Above: Average digital quotient score by age (Ofcom)

According to figures from Ofcom, we now spend more time on our devices than we do sleeping!

Ofcom facts and figures

* Although it’s Amazon and eBay who became really big and famous, they weren’t the first ecommerce sites. Online retailer NetMarket claims to have conducted the first secure retail transaction on the Web as above; another contender for the crown is the Internet Shopping Network, which claims to have sold an item a whole month earlier.

* http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/08/15-fantastic-firsts-on-the-internet/