Brits, Americans biggest online spenders, ING Bank
77% of people in the UK shop online at least once per month, 10 percentage points higher than the European average, according to research by ING Bank.
In fact, the UK is the joint most prolific online spender (with the USA), compared to consumers across Europe and Australia. ING Bank surveyed nearly 15,000 people in 13 countries. It also found that, while the popularity of different payment methods varies by country due to availability and familiarity, alternative payment technologies are starting to take off. Of these, PayPal is the most accepted overall, with only 13% in Europe reporting that they would never use the service.
However, tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook have work to do to compete with PayPal. Across Europe, 25%, 31%, 32% and 52% respectively say they would never use these providers to pay for goods and services, either in-store or online.
“Traditional bricks and mortar retailers are struggling to compete with the more flexible and lower cost e-tailer model with store closures and profit warnings an increasingly common phenomenon. As such, internet sales will take an ever-greater share of total consumer spending,” says James Knightley, Chief International Economist at ING.
“Those physical stores that are left need to adapt to changing consumer habits and expectations, which includes being flexible in how they accept payments. As such the use of cash will continue to decline and the opportunity for using alternative payments will only increase. Credit and debit cards are likely to benefit in the near term, but as awareness of alternatives grow these too are likely to see market share gradually shrink.”
