British high streets – tiring and stressful - European study reveals why Brits lead the way with online shopping this Christmas

London – 28th October 2010. Twenga, the new-generation shopping search engine, has analysed online buying behaviour across six European countries, including the UK. The figures show that while the motivation to shop online this Christmas differs from country to country, online shopping over walking the high streets is the preferred method by all.

The vast majority (91%) of British respondents choose online shopping because they like to be able to shop at any time, night or day, and 88% enjoy having presents delivered directly to their home. British respondents also think shopping online is cheaper (84%) and 83% feel it is less tiring and stressful than physically going to the shops. Two other online shopping perks noted by the Brits is having gifts delivered directly to their family or friends (60%) and the ability to shop while at work (41%).

UK compared to rest of Europe:

Online Shopping…
                           UK    Europe
Can be done any time, day or night                91%    87%
Means I can have presents delivered to my house            88%   84%
Is cheaper                         84%    74%
Is less tiring and stressful than going to the shops          83%    77%
Offers more choice                      83%    75%
Is quicker                         78%    74%
Means I can have gifts delivered directly to my family or friends   60%   57%
Means I can have gifts wrapped before delivery             52%    57%
Means I can shop while at work                   41%    49%

*Based on 3,013 Internet users

Online Shopping Grows in 2010
The volume of online Christmas shopping is increasing in all regions, but more in the UK than anywhere else where the majority of Brits are planning to buy more online with a growth of 61% compared to Christmas shopping in 2009.

United Kingdom 61%
Germany 59%
France 53%
Italy 49%
The Netherlands 44%
Spain 41%

*Based on 3,013 Internet users

Methodology
Twenga asked over 3,000 European Internet users about their Christmas spending budgets for this year and how they intend to spend it. The study by Novamétrie was conducted online for Twenga between 27th September and 7th October 2010 using a representative sample of 3013 European Internet users from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.