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Drastic Rise in Online Buying in the UK

According to Barclaycard, online spending is up by a quarter in just four years and more than 20% of all spending is likely to be done online this year. Their data shows that 22% of all card spending last year was done online and the rate is only growing.

Last year in the UK, online spending on clothing rose by 41% for men and 32% for women. Restaurants shot up by 47% mostly for takeaway food. Chris Wood, the managing director at Barclaycard said, “Takeaway restaurants are thriving thanks to consumers who are hungry for home delivery with the convenience of ordering online. Although these orders account for a small portion of total restaurant spending, we’ve seen phenomenal growth from nimble businesses that make the process easier than ever before.”

Peter Backman of the food analysts Horizon said, “The figures reflect both the overall growth in the home delivery market, as people are increasingly choosing to order in rather than buy food to cook from their local supermarket. There is also the fact that where previously people might have phoned up their local takeaway and paid in cash, nowadays people are far more likely to either order direct online or go via one of the delivery sites. Friends eating at home together can order their own food and pay for their own meals rather than having to decide what to have together, so one can eat Thai while the other has a pizza.”

The beginning of 2015 also saw a sharp rise in online spending at tourist attractions and amusement parks. People are much more comfortable booking and buying tickets online and more people have smartphones and tablets.