The UK leads the world when it comes to online shopping, according to regulator Ofcom, with the rampant rise of the smartphone making e-commerce more popular in the UK than in any other major country.
Consumers in the UK spend an average of £1,083 a year on Internet shopping, compared with Australia which spends the second highest at £842, it said.
Brits are also downloading more data from their mobiles than any other nation, according to the survey, and are also the most likely to watch TV-on-demand and use digital video recorders.
The findings form part of Ofcom’s seventh International Communications Market Report, which looks at the take-up, availability, price and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio across 17 major countries.
Ofcom director of research James Thickett said: “Our research shows UK consumers continue to benefit from one of the most advanced markets for communications products and services. We have a long history of catalogue shopping in the UK, and as many daily activities are increasingly carried out online, the Internet has become the new destination for many shoppers.
“We have always been a nation of TV lovers, and our research shows that UK consumers are world leaders in using the latest TV technology. By catching up on programmes online or using smart TVs, the UK public is finding new ways to enhance their viewing experience.”
The key findings include:
• In December 2011 the average UK mobile connection used 424MB (megabytes) of data, higher than Japanese users who averaged 392MBs.
• 16% of all web traffic in the UK was from mobiles, tablets or other connected devices – more than any other European country.
• Four in ten UK adults now access Facebook, Twitter and others social networks via their mobiles.
• For 18 to 24-year-olds the figures is even higher, at 62%.
We are also leading the way on Internet-enabled TVs, with 15% of Brits owning one, compared to 10% in the US. And more than a third of TVs sold in the first quarter of 2012 were between 33 and 44 inches.
The UK remains the cheapest place to buy communication services, although the gap is narrowing.
Ofcom said a basket of communication services – including fixed-line telephone, mobile calls and texts and fixed and mobile broadband and TV – costs on average £146 in the UK. That was £32 cheaper than in France, £101 cheaper than Italy and £168 cheaper than the US.
