Nearly half the adult population of the UK purchased goods online in Q4 of 2009

Tuesday, 02 February 2010 16:01

This was up from 45.4% for the same period in 2008. The number of people searching for information on purchasing goods and services also rose from 52.7%. to 54.5%. Online grocery shopping went up to 13.6% from 12.4%, while all other online shopping was up from 44.1% to 47.5%.

The increase can be attributed to many factors of which one is the increase in the  overall percentage of the population who have access to the internet. Of the adult population, 73.9% can now go online at home, up from 70.1% in the final quarter of 2008.

The largest increase, in terms of age group was among 18-24-year-olds, with 52.3% of them now shopping online, compared with 44.6% in the last quarter of 2008. The survey also showed that for the first time more than one in five of the 65-and-over age group shopped online in the last three months of 2009.