People in Britain are shopping with increasing regularity on the internet and not entering high street stores. Retailers are enticing people online by offering the best promotions there.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there are clear signs that the biggest reductions in prices were to be found on the web during the month of October.ers are enticing people online by offering the best promotions there.
This pumped up internet shopping to 10.5% of all shopping.
Spending is up too compared to 2012. Department stores received almost 40% more money online than they did in October last year.
Millions more people are using their iPads and smartphones for their online shopping expeditions.
The social change threatens the well-being of high street shops, although it has to be said that many of those shops are the ones which are offering better prices online than in the stores.
Retail spending overall in October was down 0.7% compared to September, and it was only outlets without stores, such as internet and catalogue companies, which experienced increases.
Sales of food, clothing and household goods were all lower. Food sales account for 42 pence out of every pound spent in the UK. With the price of many items of food having gone up, analysts believe that people are getting the “waste not, want not” message and cutting back.
The online trend is likely to turn Christmas shopping online into a bumper year and suppliers such as Amazon have already hired great numbers of temporary pick-and-pack staff.
