Multi-channel Retailing: Home Shopping Tracker & Delivery Matters 2009

The UK is a nation of high street and home shoppers, and this report provides a comprehensive overview of the home shopping market – both catalogue and online.  Books are still a popular purchase, but travel has seen the strongest growth with events tickets, mobile phones, fashion and downloadable music all performing well.

Combining Royal Mail's annual Home Shopping Tracker Study and its Delivery Matters survey, this comprehensive research also looks at the different channels consumers use to inform their buying decisions and predicts future trends in the home shopping sector.

Key findings include:

• More people now shop from home driven by the growth in online shopping, up by 7% from 2008.

• Annual online spend has increased from £1.4bn in 2000 to £42.3bn in 2009.

• Search engines and personal recommendations have the most influence on consumers prior to purchase. 

• Consumers shop across a variety of channels with 63% using a catalogue to make a purchase. 

• One third of non-shoppers are likely to shop from home in the future.

• One in three shoppers returns an item, and online shoppers are unlikely to use a retailer or etailer again if they have a difficult returns experience.