Ecommerce continues to grow across all areas of the economy
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week released its annual update of the volume of Ecommerce transacted in the UK. Whilst the increase in online sales grabbed the headlines - up 25% to £408bn, some of the other factors measured make interesting reading.
In 2009, the largest businesses continued to lead the way with adoption of new technology. However, smaller businesses were closing the gap with increasing numbers using broadband and mobile Internet, developing websites and using the Internet to interact with public authorities.
The value of purchases by businesses over computer networks reached a new high in 2009 with purchases valued at £466.3bn. In keeping with the large increase in the value of purchases, there was a significant increase in the proportion of businesses that purchased this way, from 33.3 per cent in 2008 to 51.9 per cent in 2009.
Just over 91 per cent of businesses had Internet access in 2009, with 87.4 per cent connecting via a broadband connection. Over a third of businesses used a 3G mobile connection, at 36.8 per cent. Businesses continued to provide staff with access to the Internet, with 6.8 million of those employees within scope of the survey able to access the Internet at the workplace.
The full report can be downloaded here.