“Buying online for home delivery”: how the UK shops today
“More than half of products bought for more than £20 are now bought online for home delivery,” according to a new survey from UK-based retail marketing agency Savvy. Just 39% of goods costing more than £20 are now bought instore and Click and Collect accounts for about 8%, added Savvy.
“Increasingly media rich retailer websites, the rise of social media and more flexible delivery options are making online shopping more and more compelling for shoppers to use for both researching and buying products,” concluded Savvy, in a blog posted on its website today.
Savvy suggested that bricks-and-mortar stores have to offer “retail theatre” in order to attract footfall and counter the online competition.
However, added Savvy: “Delivering that experience is expensive, so realistically it can only work effectively if investment is concentrated into fewer, larger stores. We’re already seeing this happening and it’s driving a concentration of retail centres. Major cities like London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow continue to attract investment, footfall and shopper spend, while secondary centres are often seeing footfall diminish. This trend is set to continue.”
The Savvy survey also focused on the growing important of “Generation Y”: the 18-34 year-olds who currently represent 31% of all UK shoppers. According to Savvy, 90% of this generation have bought online in the past six months and 93% of them own a smartphone – which hammers home the importance of mobile apps in the new retail environment.
