UK online retail market expected to yield £123bn in 2020

Online shopping in the UK has increased enormously over the past decade

The trend towards online retail shows no signs of abating, with sales during 2010 alone expected to hit £56bn.

UK consumers spent a whopping £250bn online over the past 10 years. The UK’s online retail market is now expected to grow by 110 per cent in the next decade, reaching £123bn in 2020.

The forecasts come from Interactive Media In Retail Group (IMRG), the industry body for global e-retail, which has published its tenth annual IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index in association with management consulting and IT services group Capgemini.

The forecast contrasts sharply with the numbers recorded in the index’s first year. During 2001, UK e-retail sales were just £1.8bn, with six million Britons shopping online. E-retail in the UK has grown by 5,772 per cent since then.

IMRG said that online retail experienced a 35 per cent growth during 2006 and then slowed down to 14 per cent during the 2009 recession.

IMRG chief executive James Roper said: “We expect to see confidence in online sales strengthen over the coming decade and by 2020 we predict that the internet will account for half of all retail sales and influence most of the other half.”