European Online Buying Behaviour from GfK

We Brits have become the biggest spenders online of all Europeans according to new GfK research. Our online purchases have increased 29% to Euros 2.7 billion (£1.7bn) over the past six months. At the same time, monthly usage has also risen, with over two thirds (65%) of Britons getting onto the Net.

While the highest level of UK Internet usage remains among the younger age groups, 14-29 year olds, a surge has also been noted amongst middle and older age groups (now accounting for 12% and 18% respectively of all monthly users). The majority of users continue to connect from home as well, hence the most popular ISPs include AOL, Freeserve and BT. However, the research shows that the number of mobile net users remains almost negligible, as does the small but slightly increasing number of WAP phone users (up 1% to 3% of the population).

That proven stalwart of Net purchases, books, remains by far the most popular item sold on the net today. This aside, sales of other categories are beginning to catch up. Items displaying a faster rate of growth include flights (up 5% at 31% of all purchases), hotel bookings (up 4% at 23%), cinema/theatre/concerts tickets (up 4% at 7%), rail tickets (up 4% at 14%) and toys (up 4% at 10%).

When asked about important concerns for online buying, the greatest number (89%) mentioned security as their top priority. However, unlike the rest of Europe, most (87%) e-consumers in the UK continue to use their credit or debit cards to make purchases. Alternative methods have started to appear here in the UK (eg. cyberwallet, Ipin, e-cash, cybercash and digicash) but only with a very small 3% level of Internet users

The survey also focused on online advertising. Of those who were aware of advertising, two thirds (63%) believe that the revenue generated enables some services on websites to be free of charge. However, 48% felt that long loading times for adverts make them ineffective. Of those who had claimed to have seen adverts, over a third had gone on to request further information.

These findings are taken from GfK's latest European Internet Usage Survey. The study covers the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and involves 1,000 CATI interviews in each country every six months.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• GfK Germany
• All news