Growth In Internet Usage

The Internet is continuing to spread across the UK according to recent figures from the ONS. In the fourth quarter of 2013 there were 44.3m people who had used the Internet representing 87% of the population. The other 13% who had never accessed the Internet amounted to 6.7m people.

The quarterly increase in numbers using the Internet was 434,000 adults, an increase of 1.2m compared with a year earlier. The number of people who had never used the Internet fell by 321,000 adults since Q3 2013 and 732,000 on a year earlier.

The number of Internet users has increased by 3.1m since the surveys on Internet use started in the LFS in the first quarter of 2011.

e-Commerce Above Estimates But Down On Year

E-commerce accounted for 18% of turnover in 2012 down from 19% in 2011 but above the 2008 estimate of 14%. Business to business electronic data interchange (EDI) sales made up 67% of the total of e-commerce sales and the rest was accounted for by business to household website sales (33%). The website sales accounted for 6%, or £164bn, of business turnover in 2012 compared to 5%, or £134bn, in 2012. Broadband Internet had reached 95% of businesses and 82% had a website.

The largest companies still dominate e-commerce sales with businesses of 1000 or over employees accounting for 51% of all e-commerce sales. Total e-commerce sales amounted to £335bn in 2008, now sales have reached £492bn. Average annual growth between 2008 and 2012 was 10%. Total growth over the period 2008-2012 was 47%.

The highest levels of total e-commerce by industry sector were reported in wholesale and manufacturing with £172bn and £157bn respectively. The accommodation and food services sector reported low sales by comparison with £9.1bn but reported the highest proportional increase of 57% annually.

Website sales have reported steady growth in recent years. In 2008 13% of businesses sold over a website reporting sales valuing £92bn. In 2012 18% of businesses sold over a website with sales of £164bn. The total value of website sales increased to 6% of total business turnover. The largest companies accounted for half of all sales. The smallest businesses accounted for only 0.7% of the total 6% of turnover from website sales.

The wholesale sector reported the highest amount of website sales with £50bn. The retail sector reported the highest proportion of businesses making sales over a website with 34% and construction the lowest with 7%.

EDI sales decreased by £23bn in 2012 to £328bn from £351bn. EDI accounted for 12% of total business turnover in the UK in 2012 (the decrease may be accounted for by things like sampling variability). Only 6% of businesses sold by EDI while three times as many businesses used websites compared to EDI but sales values over EDI were double at £328bn compared to £168bn.

The manufacturing sector made to highest amount of sales in 2012 with £145bn. The wholesale sector followed with £122bn but also saw the biggest decrease in EDI sales value down 14% or £20bn from £142bn in 2011.

Social media or websites and applications that enable users to share content and participate in social networking has enabled businesses to change the way they interact with customers. In 2012, 44% of businesses reported they had used social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Nearly a quarter had used a blog or a microblog such as Twitter. Multimedia content sharing websites like YouTube or Flickr were used by 15% of businesses. Half of large businesses have content sharing websites. The ICT sector had the highest rate of use with 53% and transport and storage the lowest with 5%.

In 2012, 68 of businesses provided NIC details online and 89% of businesses completed their VAT returns over the Internet.

Growth In e-Commerce Sales

E-commerce accounted for 19% of sales represented in the Annual Business Survey (ABS) total turnover in 2011. It has increased from 18% in 2010. Sales from websites represented 5% of total turnover compared with 4.6% in 2010. Other information in the ONS statistical bulletin says that 93% of businesses had broadband Internet and 81% had a website. Of the businesses with broadband 5.8% had a broadband connection of 100Mbps or more and 34% of the larger businesses had high speed broadband. Members of staff were provided with a portable device of some kind in 56% of cases be it a portable computer, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA). The survey is conducted annually to show the importance and values of e-commerce and the use of ICT by businesses in Britain.

High Street Slows Down In April

Retail sales values increased over the year by 0.4% to April 2012 (0.9% excluding automotive fuel). It is the slowest rate of growth since January 2010. Sales volumes fell by 1.1% over the same yearly period (0.3%% excluding automotive fuel). It is the largest fall in sales volumes since August 2011. The growth slow down was due mainly to predominantly food stores, predominantly automotive fuel stores and textile, clothing and footwear stores. Sales values in food stores grew by 0.1%, the slowest annual growth since January 1989. The fall in sales volumes in predominantly automotive fuel stores was the largest fall since February 1996. The biggest percentage of retailing went to predominantly non-food stores with 43.2%, predominantly food stores accounted for 41.7%, non-store retailing 4.9% and automotive fuel accounted for 10.2%. The total value of spending in the retail sector in April was estimated to be £25.9bn and the average weekly spend £6.5bn. Internet sales values in April were £489m, up 18.1% compared with April 2011. Internet sales are estimated to account for 8.5% of all retail sales excluding automotive fuel. Non-store retailing accounts for 60.6% of all Internet sales. Food sales has the lowest proprtion with 3.2%.

Internet Usage Continues To Spread

The percentage of people using the Internet continues to increase quarter in quarter. the figures from the ONS for Q1 2012 however suggest that 8.12m or 16.1% of adults have still never used the Internet but that is 1% down on Q4 2011 and 7% down on Q1 2011. As many as 42.16m or 83.7% of adults have now used the Internet at some time and that includes 86.1% of men and 81.3% of women. Over 3m non-users are from the over 75 age group (41.2% of non-users). Non-users are also from the disabled and lower income groups. Those most likely to have used the Internet include those earning over £500/week with nearly 99% and those over £1000/week at nearly 100%. The South East is the region with the biggest rate of users at 86.9%, then London with 86.5%. N.Ireland recorded the lowest percentage of Internet use with 75.1%. All regions have nevertheless shown an increase in Internet use over the year from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012.

Internet Users Increase To 82.9%

The number of people in UK who have ever used the Internet increased to 41.62m adults in Q3 2011, equivalent to 82.9% of the adult population. The remainder were the 8.43m adults or 16.8% of the population who have never used the Internet.

Socio-economic and demographic characteristics are linked to Internet use. Age, disability, location and earnings are example characteristics of Internet users. The never using the Internet include the over 65s, the disabled and the widowed.

The largest proportion of users according to age were the youngest aged 16-24 at 98.6%. The over 75s group decreased in its number of non-users from 76.3% to 72.4%. There were 4.25m disabled adults who had never used the Internet (over half of the total non-users).

As regards earnings the proportion of Internet non-users declines with successive weekly pay bands. Those on less than £200/week had the most non-users at 8.3%. There were no Internet non-users among those paid over £1,000/week.

Internet Access Still Increasing In UK

There are millions of people in the UK who have never used the Internet. The ONS suggests the figure is about 9.2 million people. By contrast over 38 million people are Internet users and 30.1 million people use the Internet every day, almost double the estimate for 2006.

The people most likely to have never used the Internet are the over-65s, the widowed, those on low incomes and those with no formal qualifications. The survey also showed that 19.2m homes had Internet access which is equivalent to 73%. There was an increase of people connecting by mobile phone up to 31% from 23% in 2009, 31m used the Internet to buy or order goods, 98% of people with incomes over £41,600 had used the Internet, the rate of Internet use decreased in line with income and 69% of people with an income of less than £10,399 had used the Internet, in terms of qualificatons, 45% of those with no formal qualifications had used the Internet compared with 97% of those with a degree. Approximately 17.4m people watch television or listen to the radio over the Internet up from 6.4m in 2006.

Retail Sales Up 2.5%

The value of retail sales in June 2010 went up by 2.5% compared with June 2009 according to the ONS Retail Sales Index. The index stood at 116.3 compared with 116.2 in May 2010 an increase of 0.1% and 113.5 in June 2009. The volume rose by 1.3%. The index was 113.1 compared with 111.7 in June 2009 and 112.3 in May 2010 an increase of 0.7%.

In food stores the value of sales was up by 1.7% on a year ago while the volume was 0.2% lower. The value of sales rose by 3.7% in non-food stores along with an increase of 4.4% in the volume of sales. Household goods rose by 4.4% in value and 6.1% in volume, textiles, clothing and footwear increased in sales value by 3.3% and in volume by 4.2%. The non-specialised store category sales increased in value by 9.1% and volume increased by 10.3%. Non-store retailing increased sales values by 14.1% and volume by 14.8%. The figures are seasonally-adjusted.

Non-seasonally adjusted prices were estimated to have risen by 1.3% compared with June 2009. The value of fuel sales was 3.6% lower than last year but the volume was 15.9% lower. The value of Internet retail sales in June was estimated to have been £437m which equates to 7.9% of total retail sales (excluding fuel). The total value of sales in June 2010 was estimated to have been £30.9bn (non-seasonally-adjusted) and the average weekly value was £6.2bn.

Different sized retailers have a mix of experiences in terms of growth of sales value and volume. The biggest retailers with over 100 employees reported an average 3.3% increase in sales between June 2009 and June 2010. The smallest retailers, with 0-9 employees, sales fell by 0.9% over the same period. Those employing 40-69 employees experienced 51.3% growth over the year but businesses with 70-99 employees saw their sales decrease by 45.7%.

People Spending But Less Confident

The value of sales on the High Street during April fell 2.3% on a like-for-like basis and 0.2% on a total basis according to the British Retail Consortium's Retail Sales Monitor. Over the three months from February to April food sales increased 0.9%, non-food 2.1% and all categories 1.6% on a like-for-like basis. On a total basis food increased by 2.9%, non-food by 4.4% and all categories by 3.8%. Non-food non-store sales, which include the Internet, mail order and telesales, were 15% up in April on last year but used more promotions to maintain sales.

Marketers More Optimistic

The latest Bellwether Report from the IPA says that marketing budgets have been revised upwards for the first time in two and a half years. Firms are confident about the future and expect the recovery to continue. The main media budgets are up for the first time since Q3 2007 and Internet budgets were adjusted for the third quarter in a row but the biggest since since Q1 2008. Sales promotion and direct marketing budgets were unchanged. Below the line marketing budgets such as PR and events was the only sector to revise spend downwards.

Fibre-Optic The Future Of OECD Broadband

The OECD has updated its broadband statistics of member states to June 2009. The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD in June 2009 was 271 million, up 10% from June 2008, and half of OECD countries have reached 25 subscriptions in a 100 people. Future growth in fast broadband is expected to come from fibre-optic networks.

In June 2009 the United States had the most broadband subscribers by millions in the world with over 81m, Japan came second with nearly 31m and Germany with 24m. These were followed by France and the UK with 18.7 and 17.7m respectively and then Korea with nearly 16m and Italy with nearly 12m.

Korea had the largest proportion of households with 94.3% having broadband access. Iceland had 83.2% and Denmark 74.1%. The United States proprtion of households with broadband access was 50.8% (2007), the UK had 61.5%, Japan 58.5%, Germany 54.9% and Italy 30.8%.

The price range of broadband monthly subscriptions was very wide in some countries and very narrow in others. In Turkey the price range was very wide. The range was from very low at $8.45 a month to quite high at $125.95 a month in US dollars PPP terms. The Slovak Republic's range was widest from a moderately low $15.6 a month to a very high $263.23 a month. Korea had a very narrow range of prices in the middle to low range from $33.97 to $43.03. The US range in price was from $14.99 a month to $139.95 a month. UK prices ranged from $17.81 to $55.76, Japan prices range from $19.50 to $67.09 a month, Germany $23.02 to $75.15 and Italy from $11.39 to $45.43.

The average prices for low speed connections were lowest in Italy at $11.39 PPP and highest in Mexico at $57.79. The US average was $24.40, the UK $22.07, Japan $22.38 and Germany $36.96. The average monthly broadband subscription price was highest in the Slovak Republic at $78.86 PPP quite a long way ahead of Mexico in second at $59.52 and the lowest in Sweden at $29.22 ahead of Greece at £30.06.

PPP stands for Purchasing Power Parity which is a measure that gives currencies some equivalence for a meaningful comparison in terms of a parity of their purchasing power.

Internet Sales And Connectivity Still On The Up

Internet sales in 2008 went up by 36.6% to £222.9bn from £163.2bn in 2007. These were comprised of £104.7bn website sales and £118.2bn electronic data interchange (EDI) sales. The Internet sales represented 9.8% of all sales of UK non-financial sector businesses. The proportion of businesses using the Internet for selling purposes went up to 15.2% in 2008 from 14.4% in 2007. Website sales accounted for 12.8%.

Employees are increasingly using the Internet more from their workplaces. There were 7.8m workplace users or 45.5% of employees (within the scope of the survey) in 2008. Internet access was available to 80% of people who used computers at work. New technologies are also being used more. Wireless LANs (WLAN) are increasing in number as is the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID). This year is the first time RFID has been measured with 1.4% of businesses using the technology. The bigger companies of over 1000 employees (12.5%) used the technology more than the small businesses (1%).

The wholesale, retail and catering sector had the biggest piece of the pie with £106.6bn. The majority of sales were to customers in the UK at £281.3bn, 83% of the total. Sales to the EU totalled £36.8bn or 11% and sales to the rest of the world were £20.1bn. The number of businesses with a website increased to 73.5% in 2008, but only 12.6% used them for sales. The biggest proportion of them were in the post and telecommunications sector with 23.5%.

Mobile Internet connections are continuing to increase. The number of businesses using that kind of connection has increased to 37.6% while digital subscription remained the most popular connection method. The majority of businesses adopting mobile access are large businesses at over 87% with small businesses on 32%.

Businesses are using the Internet to obtain information (62%) and forms (58%) from the public authorities (66%). Size of business is again linked to interaction with public authorities. In 2008, 62% of businesses with 10-49 staff interact online compared with 87% of companies with over 1000 employees.

Supply chain management systems are used by more and more businesses. Enterprise resource planning systems are used by 6% with bigger businesses 10 times more likely to use ERP software than SMEs. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are used by 14% to share information about customers and by 12.4% for information analysis for marketing.

These statistics are from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Great October Retail Sales

The value of UK retail sales for October on a like-for-like basis rose 3.8% over the year from October 2008 and 5.9% on a total basis across all categories. Food sales slowed again, clothing and footwear growth increased and homewares and furniture also gained helped by consumer confidence and the housing market. These gains should be set against the larger declines of last year. Internet, mail order and phone sales increased by 18% in October compared with 11.9% in September in line with store sales.

Retail Recovery Falling Backwards

Retail sales rose on a total basis in August by 2.2% compared with 1.4% this time last year. Food sales continue to do well increasing slightly from the lows of July. Clothing and footwear weakened slightly. Homewares and furniture fell back to below last year's levels. Internet sales were 7.9% higher than last year.

Internet Access Reaches 70% Of Homes

Internet access has reached 18.31 million homes. It represents 70% of households and an increase of 1.85m households since 2008. Of all households 63% or 16.5 million have a broadband connection, up from 56% in 2008. It represents 90% of all Internet access. The youngest group (16-24) had the highest level of access at 96% but the largest growing group is the oldest group (65+) with a 15% increase compared with a 3% increase with the youngest group. More men than women have accessed the Internet in the last three months.

The proportion of daily Internet access users was 73%. The youngest, with 86%, accessed the Internet the most, every day or almost every day. The oldest group use it the least, with 52% using it every day. The most popular uses are e-mail but social networking is growing with 40% of users posting messages and so on. There were also increases in audio-visual uses, web radio and web television. Internet phone calls are also now popular.

Purchasing over the Internet is a growing phenomenon with 64% having purchased online at some time and 83% within the last three months. Men buy films and music, women buy clothes or sporting goods as well as food and groceries. Youger people buy clothes and sporting goods and older people buy books, magazines, newspapers and e-learning materials.

Retail Sales Up

The seasonally adjusted value of retail sales rose by 2.6% compared with July 2008. Food stores were 5.2% higher while non-food stores were 0.6% lower. Non-store retailing and repair sector was 10.8% up on last year.

The volume of retail sales rose by 3.3% compared with July 2008 and 1.6% on the quarter. Food stores were up by 2% and non-food stores by 3.4%. Non-store retailing and repair was 12.9% up on last year.

Prices were 0.7% lower than July 2009 driven mainly by non-food stores. The value of Internet sales in July was £178.3m or 3.3% of total retail sales. The total of retail sales was an estimated £21.9bn and average weekly sales in July was £5.5bn. Figures from ONS.

Good Weather Good For Sales

Retail sales rose 1.4% on a like-for-like basis and 3.2% in total in June according to the British Retail Consortium-Nielsen Retail Sales Monitor. The good weather is said to be a contributory factor in the increase in sales, particularly food sales and outdoor goods. This time last year it was wet and cold. The uncertainty about jobs may be putting shoppers off spending on bigger items which has seen sales fall off slightly. The weather has not put people off the Internet and other non-food non-store sales which were up 16.8% on last year. The gap between like-for-like and total sales performance is narrowing reflecting the reduction in new store openings in the current environment.

Retail Sales Fall Again

The value of retail sales fell by 1.1% in May 2009 compared with May 2008. The volume of retail sales in May 2009 fell by 1.6% compared with May 2008 according to the latest ONS statistics. They warn that it is important to note that the value and volume of sales for May 2008 were unusually large.

In food stores the value was 3.9% higher than last year and the volume 1.3% lower. Non-food stores values were 6.2% lower and volumes 3% lower than last year. Against the trend, in non-food stores, non-specialised stores increased their volumes by 3%. Another sector to increase both value and volume was the non-retailing and repair sector which increased 6.6% in value and 9.8% in volume. Prices were estimated to be 0.7% higher than the same time last year. The average weekly value of Internet sales was £117.3 million or 3.3% of total sales.

Sales Values Fall

Retail sales values fell by 0.8% in the year to May on a like-for-like basis but the total showed only a 0.8% increase in total. These BRC statistics are actual values that include VAT and are taken from a sample of retailers. It is a measure of the volume of spending. It does not reflect price changes so if prices rise the volume increases by less than sales values. The values for non-food non-store sales, which includes Internet sales, reported a 7.6% change on last year. It continues to out-perform store sales but it is the weakest figure reported since the measure began. The quarterly figures show increases of 5.4% like-for-like and 6.8% in total for food sales and a 2.4% increase in total over all categories.

Increase In Retail Sales

The volume of seasonally adjusted retail sales was up by 2.6% in April on April 2008. Food stores were up 1.5, the largest increase for a year, while non-food stores which includes many different groupings, showed mixed results but increased 2.8% overall. The total retail sales volume in three months to April was 0.7% higher than last year. Average weekly value of internet retail sales from the March report were about £172 million, 3.4 percent of retail sales for March.