eCommerce has blown up in the last decades, where businesses are earning millions of sales through online selling. Ranging from a surge in online platforms to technological advancement, it has created an expeditious eCommerce market in the UK. However, it gets challenging to gauge the eCommerce market in the UK, but we are here to equip you with the details!
Eye-Opening Statistics
The Industrial Trends
The UK is the most flourished eCommerce market of Europe, and it earned £639 billion in 2019. In particular, manufacturing and wholesale are the two most significant sectors reaping most sales through eCommerce channels. In the retail industry, online sales accounted for 19.4% of retail in 2019, and it is likely to spike up in the forthcoming years.
Online sales accounted for 46.1% of total sales in 2020, the fastest growth rate recorded in the last ten years. For this reason, the eCommerce landscape is continuously improving. In 2020 alone, 87% of the households made online purchases, with which the UK recorded the highest penetration rate in the last eleven years (sports goods and clothing were the two most shopped-from industries).
Tapping Into the Shopping Habits
The fashion industry is the most shopped-from category in the UK and accounts for 31% of eCommerce sales. The other sectors include;
- Electronics and media for 18%
- Food and personal care for 17%
- Toys, DIY, and hobby products for 19%
- Furniture and appliances for 15%
These stats have were collected by observing the payment methods and patterns used by the eCommerce shoppers.
How UK’s Local Businesses Are Adapting To eCommerce
Various small-scale brick-and-mortar stores didn’t have an eCommerce presence before the pandemic simply because they were dependent on customers walking into the stores to make money. However, during COVID-19 and lockdowns, the trends shifted, and people were no longer allowed to hit their favourite shopping spots (or maybe they were too scared to do so?).
This obviously led to a change in consumer behaviour, which made eCommerce an essential sales channel for ensuring the success of local businesses. It’s safe to say that eCommerce is opening new arenas for small businesses to stay close to their customer base that’s habituated to online shopping. Moreover, it allows local companies to expand their reach but tapping into the digital paradigm is not the easiest.
That’s to say because the small and local businesses didn’t have the experience in eCommerce (all that money was earned by the bigger enterprises, of course). However, with some research, the small businesses could launch their own website and utilize an Ecommerce Platform like Etsy to speed up the online sales, but it requires more. The UK businesses can utilize the following tips to adapt to eCommerce and easily slide into the digital world;
- Time and money are the two biggest constraints faced by local businesses during digital transformation. So, it’s important to identify partners who can help with the transformation and only create practical strategies.
- Involving staff in the process helps gain insights into challenges the staff faces during the digital transformation and devise strategies accordingly.
- Creating a long-term yet flexible strategy because adapting to the eCommerce world is a long process, and regularly requires new strategic changes.
- Not only Google Shopping, but also focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important for your E-Commerce store. Link Building is a major factor for how you will improve your Search Results, therefore collaborating with a Link Building Agecny in UK is highly recommend, so you can focus on delivering the best customer service
The Bottom Line
The eCommerce industry is still an infant, but UK’s market is growing strong, making this the right time for local businesses to take advantage of this profitable opportunity. It’s evident that local businesses will need to make adjustments to yield more revenues, but it’s great for creating a competitive edge!
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