Consumer behavior

In the United Kingdom, 53 percent of consumers prefer to shop online using a brand's app over its website. This is mostly because they experience complex processes for signing in and setting up accounts on the website. Still, 40 percent get frustrated when shopping or paying on a mobile.

The ecommerce website of DIY retailer Homebase has finished last in an annual online shops survey. Many customers in the United Kingdom weren't satisfied with their online shopping experience at Homebase.co.uk over the past six months.

Consumers the United Kingdom are increasingly turning to foreign retailers when they are shopping online. Currently, over a third of UK shoppers are buying cross-border regularly, with 15 percent making an online purchase overseas at least once a week.

The traditional brand website is losing importance among online shoppers in Europe. Only 11 percent of European e-shoppers say they go to a brand's website first when they are searching for a product. A significant share of online shoppers, 45 percent, turn to Amazon first.

Last year, 22 percent of Brits shopped online once a week, but that percentage has increased to 26 percent now. Also, 68 percent of the British population shop online at least once a month, while 3 percent do this every day.

Consumers in Europe spend about 5 percent of all their spending on subscriptions. They spend on average 130 euros per month for subscriptions, such as video, music, sport or food. Every year, 350 billion euros is spent in Europe on these type of purchases.

Consumers in Italy are more and more interested in shopping online. A recent study shows that two out of three Italians have visited an online store in January, while over half of Italians (53 percent) have purchased a product or service online during this period.

Over half of Polish internet users can be identified as e-consumers. Online shoppers in Poland are primarily people aged 50 years of younger, with a secondary or university degree and living in larger cities. Also, there are more women than men who shop online in Poland.

Among the ten economies in the world that are most ready to benefit from ecommerce, seven are European. For the third straight year, Luxembourg ranks first on UNCTAD's ranking of countries' capacity to support online shopping. Switzerland and Norway complete the top three.

Ecommerce in Austria is growing rapidly and so is the willingness of Austrian consumers to buy goods online. Last year, the online sales per capita were worth 885 euros, which makes Austria one of the top countries in this area.

Traditionally, consumers spend the most money online in December. But new predictions show that November might be overtaking December as the year's peak trading month. If the estimates are right, November will see a record 20 billion pounds (22.7 billion euros) spent online.

Consumers in the United Kingdom spent on average 74.09 euros per online FMCG purchase in 2016, which corresponds with a decrease of over 2 percent compared to the situation a year before. But still, the online ticket was 4.5 times higher than the offline one. Globally, only in Thailand consumers spend much more online on fast-moving consumer goods than they do offline.

Europeans are quite active in the ecommerce market. One in four Europeans with internet access shopped online at least once a week last year, while over 60 percent shopped online once a month. And 6 percent of Europeans shop online every day.

Consumers rarely buy something online directly after they have seen it in an online store. It takes some time between visiting an ecommerce website and completing the purchase. Shopalike analyzed the buying behavior of European consumers and discovered some interesting findings.

One in four Polish online consumers is planning to increase their expenditures on online shopping. They are also spending more on clothing and accessories and less on mobile devices than they did a year ago. Also, men spend more on electronics, while women spend more on books, CDs and films.