Online shopping in Europe is gaining more ground

More and more European consumers are buying more items online than they do in store. A fifth of Brits now do that, while in Germany it’s already one in four consumers that buy more online than offline. This appears from the Ecommerce Index from online retailer Rakuten.

This study of global shopping trends also suggests that global ecommerce sales are being driven by consumers wanting to buy clothing and accessories online. According to Rakuten 70% of the Germans are buying clothes online, while 66% of the Brits do it as well.

Retailers should offer more payment methods
In the United Kingdom the top reason for shopping online is the fact items are way more easier to find; in all countries the main reason for shopping offline is the ability to check items more thoroughly. The ease of payment and the chance to ask shop assistants for help is also highly valued. Rakuten thinks online retailers could benefit from offering more payment methods and introducing virtual assistants in the store. This way the distance between online and offline shopping tends to get smaller even more.

Clothing top category online shoppers
Although buying clothes and accessories online is very popular globally, it’s not surprising these percentages are – as we mentioned earlier – high in the UK and Germany, because Europe is leading the trend. It’s the top category for online shoppers, followed by books and magazines, and consumer electronics. Online sales of clothing and footwear in the United States are set to reach 40 billion dollars this year, with the Ecommerce Index from Rakuten showing that 60% of US shoppers buy clothes online. Large appliances are least likely to be bought online in most countries. The sales in this category are growing but remain low. It seems that consumers still like to go to a store to check this kind of big items in real life instead of buying them online.