One third of UK population has bought goods online, says survey
Howard Lake | 14 December 2002 | News
A Barclaycard Merchant Services survey reports that over £130 million is spent online each week in the UK.
According to the survey, one third of online shopping takes place between 6pm and 9pm, presumably when people have come home and have a little time to themselves. These evening shoppers on average spend more than their daytime equivalents: average sales in the evening are £1.60.
It’s not clear if this habit applies to making donations online, but it is likely. Charities Aid Foundation reported two years ago that a significant proportion of online CharityCard donations were made out of office hours.
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Travel Web sites attract most sales, with sales of rail and plane tickets together with holidays taking £13.89 million each week. The nation spends a further £13.44 million online each week on financial services. CDs, food, drink, clothes and books are the other popular selling items.
Is this phenomenon enough to persuade charities to provide support service staff during the evening to help donors with any queries whether by phone or e-mail? Probably not. But it could just be worth rewriting some of the donation pages to address an audience who might have had a long day at work or home.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.