Britons are top online spenders in Europe

A leading European price comparison site has publicized research which discovered that Britons are the continent's biggest online spenders.

Compiled by the Centre for Retail Research and with its findings made public by Kelkoo, the report revealed that in 2009 Britons spent £38 billion ($60.8 billion) shopping online. The amount of money spent by online shoppers in Britain accounted for 30 percent of all online spending in Europe, Sky News noting that shoppers in Germany and France were the second and third highest spenders, the three countries together making up 70 percent of all European Internet sales. And in spite of, or perhaps because of, the recent recession online sales in Britain grew by 12 percent in 2009, meaning that they represented 9.5 percent of all retail sales in the country last year. But the expectations are that 2010 will be even bigger than 2009 from the viewpoint of sales over the Internet. According to the Press Association there is expected to be 12.4 percent growth in Britain, where it is thought £42.7 billion ($68.3 billion) will be spent online in 2010. However it is anticipated that in Europe as a whole sales will grow by 19.6 percent, meaning £152.8 billion ($244.5 billion) will be spent over the Internet during the current year. After generating 4.7 percent of all retail sales in Europe in 2009, online shoppers are set to generate 5.5 percent of all European retail sales this year. Seemingly less enamored with online shopping are the populations of Poland, Finland and Norway - although population size may be a factor in the amount of money spent online in those countries Apparently Polish online shoppers only spent £2.2 billion last year. Those in Finland spent slightly more, £2.3 billion, Norwegian Internet users spending £2.9 billion. But Norwegians were third when it came to the highest average individual online spend. On average British consumers spent £1,102 each over the Internet in 2009, consumers in Denmark £1,079 each, and those in Norway £979 each. Bruce Fair is Managing Director of Kelkoo UK - Kelkoo's main website indicates that it operates in 11 European countries - and the Telegraph says that he reacted to the findings of the report his company released by saying:

2010 is when we will really start to see online sales achieving a significant share of overall retail trade in the UK. 'While the retail industry is showing slow signs of recovery, the online shopping sector bucked the trend in 2009 delivering double-digit growth, and is expected to continue to perform strongly in 2010