Cyber Monday 2012, otherwise known as 3 December, is likely to be the biggest online shopping day of 2012 with millions of pounds passing through UK ecommerce websites alone.
It’s a strong sign of the UK’s maturity as an ecommerce market – worldwide it is second only to the US. In 2012, the UK online retail market will grow by around 13 per cent to £77bn.
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But according to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), the government department charge with bolstering UK exports, Cyber Monday could also provide the impetus for more UK retailers to sell more overseas.
John Andrews, managing director of Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), believes that UK retailers have a competitive advantage selling overseas, partly because US traders are happy to focus on their own domestic market which is huge.
“Gap didn’t make a big effort online, preferring to sell through shops in the UK,” he says. Ironically, claims Andrews, it was the US internet explosion that helped to spawn a strong UK online retail market.
“The market has been strongly established in the UK following the groundswell from the US because of the common language of English,” he adds. “People communicated online so why not shop online?”
Companies like ASOS.com, a UK online retail behemoth which is thought to worth around £1.4bn today, fell into exporting by accident but have reaped significant benefits by doing so.
Peter Williams, a director at ASOS, says it was this and ASOS’ efforts to make returns as easy as possible which helped the company grow quickly after the dotcom bubble burst.
Other businesses can learn from this experience, he says. To find out more about expanding your business and exporting overseas on Cyber Monday and beyond, click on the following link: UKTI Season’s Clickings.
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