Looking further ahead, the Internet research company claims that the number of people online in the six strongest Internet markets (UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, Finland) will actually increase by 85.6 million over the next five years.

Jupiter has been able to construct a basic typology of Internet penetration by experience levels. "Veterans" are those users who have been online for more than two years, "intermediates" have been using the net between one and two years, whilst "newbies" have been using the Internet for one year or less. In this context, online shopping in Europe depends largely on a person’s Internet experience: 11% of newbies and 41% of veterans have purchased something online.

Additionally, the data reveals that 34% of all users who have been shopping online for one year or less have spent less than EUR100 in the past year. Only 13% of those with two or more years of experience spent the same amount. However, 25% of experienced shoppers have spent EUR1,000 or more in the last twelve months, compared to 12% of inexperienced shoppers. So plenty of scope for future growth is evident from the findings.