According to Ofcom’s latest international study on the communications market, people within the UK are more likely to order their shopping online, than any other nation within Europe. According to the same study apparently the UK general public care a lot less about how their personal data is being used in several different ways by social networking website. This may come as quite a shock to some people because apparently 7 out of 10 British people worry about their privacy online.
According to this study 79% of British Internet surfers have already made online purchases, whilst 90% have looked at shopping websites. If you compare these numbers to the number of web users in Italy, where only 27 per cent of regular web users have made online purchases, there is a drastic difference.
When we say internet shopping, this is not restricted to shopping from just computers; this number includes smart phone users also. The number of UK users surfing the web, is also higher than any other countries surveyed. In just a year and a half smart phone users in the UK has risen from 24% – 46%.
This is why companies are investing more and more not in just internet technology, but in mobile phone technology also, paying thousands of pounds to have apps made for their company. According to studies in the USA by the year 2015, the Mobile App Market will be worth over $25 Billion Dollars. So no wonder more and more companies are putting developers through their paces to come up with personalised apps. Even industries you didn’t expect such as the promotional merchandise industry. Earlier this year the BTC Group launched their very own Catalogue app called promo gifts that is available on the iTunes store.
The world of marketing is changing, especially when it comes to buying things. New technology is being integrated into mobile phones, where you are not able to buy things online with your mobile phone, but you can buy things in store with your mobile phone as well. This is called NFC technology. Predictors say by 2015 £93 Billion worth of transactions will have been made using this technology.
The future is extremely fast moving, and if you are not keeping up with it individually or as an industry, you are being left behind faster and faster each day. The best way to keep on top of things is to research what is coming out, and see how it can help you and your company, forward thinking is a must!
Citations:
- Britain ‘a nation of online shoppers’ – The Telegraph, Wednesday 14 December 2011
- Ofcom International Communications Market Report 2011 (pdf)
Written by Christopher Smith BTC Group Creative Marketing Executive. To download app mentioned in the article click Promo Gifts
