The month of July 2010 saw an 18% increase in online sales with UK shoppers spending £5 billion in one month — the biggest monthly rise for three years.

The statistics on the surge in UK online shopping were released a day after growth figures for the UK retail sector in general reported an increase of 1.1% — more than double the 0.4% predicted by financiers in the city of London. This had far reaching implications and caused Sterling to rise against both the US Dollar and the Euro.

Quick e-commerce facts — July 2010

• Online sales grew by 18%
• UK shoppers spent an average of £81 online
• Online travel sales rose by 1/3 compared with July 2009

UK e-commerce spend

Online shopping statistics indicated that UK shoppers spent £30 billion in 2008 and £38 billion in 2009 which outperformed both Forrester and Verdict predictions. In excess of £50 billion is expected to change hands online in 2011.

"E-commerce is having a huge impact on the way we do business. It can lead to dramatic growth in trade, increase markets, improve efficiency and effectiveness and can transform business processes." — the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Sources:

• Retail sales in July outstrip expectations to rise 1.1% — Guardian
• Online sales hit three year high — BBC
• IMRG (the Interactive Media in Retail Group)
• Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-commerce activity by UK businesses — National Statistics Online
• Verdict retail research
• Forrester research

Related links

Social e-commerce

BrightLemon™ are currently looking at developing a platform which will combine our social networking and online community expertise with e-commerce capabilities — a powerful, scalable social e-commerce solution. For technical, partner or media enquries, or to be informed of the beta launch please contact us

Drupal e-commerce training in London

For budding (and existing) Drupal developers we are holding two courses which will teach you how to build and maintain a complete content managed Drupal e-commerce web site:

1. Drupal Training — Drupal Development with Views and CCK — (Novice to Intermediate) — a one day course explaining the key building blocks of every advanced Drupal web site. This course will teach you how to do Drupal the Drupal way! — Drupal Training — Drupal Development with Views and CCK
2. Drupal Training — Drupal e-commerce solutions with Ubercart — (Intermediate to Advanced) - a one day course building upon your Drupal knowledge to create fully fledged e-commerce solutions — Drupal Training - Drupal e-commerce solutions with Ubercart

About BrightLemon

BrightLemon™ London create and maintain online communities for education and charity. Our clients include the British Council, Department for Education, Amnesty International, Tate Modern, Victoria & Albert Museum and Plan International. Our networks represent over 1,125,000 users in 18 countries and have been featured in the finals of both the BIMA and BETT Awards and on MySQL.com.