E-commerce and cross-border e-commerce in the UK
- The current state of online shopping in the UK
The UK has the most advanced e-commerce market in Europe. Online shopping is more popular in the UK than in any other country. From the data of the UK in 2021, there are 67.61M Mobile phone connections, 65.32M Internet users, and 53M active social media users in the UK. And, by 2022, the country is expected to have nearly 60 million e-commerce users. It can be seen that e-commerce is very popular among shoppers in the UK, and much data support this point. In 2021, online sales will account for 30% of total retail sales in the UK, which is more than double what it was a decade ago. And the revenue of e-commerce was $156 billion. This number is almost 15% up from the number in 2020 and over triple the revenue of UK e-commerce in 2015. After the outbreak of Covid-19, UK Internet retail sales are growing rapidly. In the short term, e-commerce has been affected by Covid-19, but in the long term, e-commerce is expected to continue to grow steadily in the UK. The data shows that the fashion segment, electronics, textile, clothing, and footwear stores are the categories that people shop more online in the UK. More and more UK shoppers choose to shop online these years.
- Top 10 online e-commerce
The top 10 online stores in the UK in 2021 are Amazon, Tesco, Sainsburys, Argos, Johnlewis, Currys, Ocado, Next, Asda, and Very by net sales. Amazon.co.uk is the most popular in the UK e-commerce market, with e-commerce net sales of $17,078 million in 2021 generated in the UK, with 407 million visits per month. The second is tesco.com with $7,654 million, followed by sainsburys.co.uk with revenues of $7,555 million. Together, the top three stores account for around 58% of online net sales in the UK. For the biggest one, the Amazon store, there are more than 65,000 UK SMEs selling professionally, up almost 20% year-on-year. Nearly 90% of shoppers in the UK are suing Amazon. This is an amazing statistic compared to other stores. Moreover, there are 21 FBA distribution centers in the UK for cross-border e-commerce. E-commerce is more and more popular in the UK.
- Cross-border e-commerce
Selling goods from a platform of a national store in one country to another country is cross-border e-commerce. For cross-border business, the UK is business-friendly and has the third-largest e-commerce market in the world. International shipping and payment methods are variable and convenient. Although the legal regulations and landed costs may be the disadvantages of cross-border e-commerce, the UK still has great advantages to develop its online business internationally. For main cross-border online shopping markets in the UK 2021 by market share, China was the cross-border market that most online shoppers from the UK shopped from in 2021. Purchases from Chinese retailers accounted for 32 percent of British cross-border e-commerce. The U.S. was the second, with a 21% share, while Germany accounted for about 9%.
- International Warehouse
For international trade, buyers use the platform to buy products from other countries, so sellers prepare the products in one country and use international transportation to deliver these products to another country. So they need an international warehouse to save time. International warehouses are hubs to ensure the timely delivery of goods to consumers with a minimum of shipping challenges in the global supply chain. There are many warehouses in different cities in different countries. For consumers, international warehousing can help them save time and buy products from other countries. Consumers have more options. For sellers, international warehouses can help them to spend affordable money to deliver products to the warehouse before consumers place orders. Consumers and sellers can visually find out where their products have gone online. There are many freight companies in the UK have set up their own international warehouses to make the process visual and timely. There are over 1,500 individual warehouse units in the UK used for storage and distribution. In the future, the international warehouse will have more functions to make the process more and more visual.
- Devices and payments for online shopping
The growth of online shopping has driven people’s pursuit of cost-effectiveness. When people shop online, they can clearly see the pictures and prices of the products and compare them. This has a big impact on physical stores. Affected by Covid-19, many physical stores had to close or go bankrupt. In terms of devices, UK consumers are very fond of mobile phones for online shopping. UK consumers use tablets, desktops, and smartphones to shop online. Despite many choices, most consumers use their computers to do more shopping. In 2021, the average value among online purchases was still the highest on desktop devices, with UK consumers spending an average of $125 on desktops in comparison to $102 on tablets and $96 on mobile phones. But there are also figures showing that online sales of smartphones have exceeded desktops. Moreover, product reviews are very important for UK consumers when they choose products, but free delivery and free returns options are less essential. For payment methods, credit and debit cards are the most widely used. Visa and MasterCard are almost universally accepted. In recent years, with the popularity of the Internet, PayPal and other electronic payment methods have also become more and more popular.
In conclusion, Internet shopping is more popular in the UK than in any other country. The UK has the most advanced e-commerce market in Europe. The UK is business-friendly and has the third-largest e-commerce market in the world. Amazon is the most popular in the UK e-commerce market. Then the international warehouse is coming for cross-border business, it helps sellers save time when selling products internationally, and consumers have more options to choose from. UK shoppers prefer to shop online with smartphones and desktops. When shopping online, electronic payments become more and more popular these years. In the future, there will be more functions in the international warehouses to make the whole process visual and timely. The diversity of cross-border e-commerce will also increase.
