Sporting equipment, garden & DIY products, toys & games, tablet computers, mobile phonesand software & games are forecast to be among the fastest growing online sales sectors in the
UK in the next 12 months, according to new research revealed today.The research, commissioned by leading parcel company DPD, questioned some 2,000 onlineshoppers about the products they bought in the last 12 months and items they would consider buyingin the next year in order to identify the fastest growing e-tail sectors.
Sporting equipment is tipped to be the fastest area for growth, with the number of peoplesaying that they would buy online increasing by a massive 69 per cent, followed by DIY equipment (67 per cent) and garden & outdoor goods ( 58 per cent), the survey found.
The top five products bought online in the last 12 months were books (63 per cent),clothing/footwear (61 per cent), DVDs (54 per cent), CDs (43 per cent) and beauty & healthcareproducts (32 per cent).
Six products in the 2012 list also appear in the fastest growing list: beauty &healthcare, kitchen & home, toys & games, electrical & photographic, garden &outdoor and software & games. These sectors present the most significant growth as they arealready well established online sectors and are therefore the most likely to challenge the dominant“Big Four” of books, clothing, DVDs and CDs in the immediate future.
Commenting on the research, DPD’s CEO Dwain McDonald said: “Books, CDs, DVDs and clothingcontinue to dominate the online retail market. But our research suggests that internet shoppers areincreasingly prepared to buy a wider range of goods and purchase higher value items such as PCs,tablet computers, photographic equipment and mobile phones.
“As the range and value of goods bought online increases, the reliability and speed ofdelivery become ever more important. DPD is working hard to innovate services in this area andoptions like our one-hour delivery timeslot service, Predict, have given retailers a far bettercustomer experience enabling more parcels to be delivered right first time. It also helps to giveshoppers greater confidence that buying high value goods online is a straightforward and convenientway to shop,” he added.
“Online shopping has rapidly grown to become a mainstream retail channel in the UK. Over thelast few years an increasing number of people have switched on to the convenience of shopping fromhome and, thanks to the internet it has never been easier to research and compare a wide range ofproducts from different retailers to find the best deal,” McDonald said.
