Global consumers spend a fifth of annual outgoings on online shopping

Consumers around the world devote five hours a month to online shopping, and spend 22 percent of their average annual outgoings on goods and services online, according to a new report by payment processor WorldPay.

Given its huge scale, it’s no surprise that Amazon came out top as the most popular website for buying goods online, with 43 percent of consumers (90 percent in the UK) shopping on Amazon in the last three months. Trailing behind was eBay with 33 percent globally and 57 percent in the UK. The three most popular shopping websites globally were department stores (31 percent), clothes retailers (30 percent) and consumer electronics (25 percent). In the UK food shopping was popular with a third of Brits (33 percent) saying they buy groceries online, compared to an average 18 percent globally.

WorldPay’s Global Online Shopper Report, which surveyed global 19,000 consumers, found that the most popular time to shop online was 8.40pm. More, more than a quarter of consumers (29 percent) shop while at work, eight percent of respondents even do it while supposedly on holiday.

The study also highlighted that 55 percent, 19 percent and 11 percent of e-shoppers use a laptop, smartphone or tablet, respectively. China has the largest percentage of consumers who use their smartphone to purchase online (46 percent), followed by India (40 percent). In terms of mobile shopping apps, while the global average is 2.6, Chinese shoppers used 5.7 compared to 1.2 in Finland.

When it comes to embracing other new technologies, such as smart TVs, the study found that more than a fifth of respondents already owned an internet-ready TV and that of those who do, 24 percent have used it to purchase goods and services online. Globally, 5 percent of consumers had bought something online using a next generation interactive TV.  The highest users were online shoppers in India (63 percent), Brazil (39 percent) and China (33 percent).

Despite the gloomy economic outlook, ecommerce spend is set to grow. Sixty-four percent of shoppers across the world state they would consider spending more than half of their disposable income online. India and China led the way with 91 percent respondents saying they are open to spending over half of their outgoings online in the future, compared to just 50 percent of Britons.