The UK’s e-commerce market is mature and complex. Not only is there potential for return on investment, but it is also relatively easy to set up a company in the UK. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, the UK is an excellent place to open an online store. In 2017, mobile e-commerce sales in the UK reached 16.42 billion pounds, accounting for 46.5% of total e-commerce retail sales. In 2017, mobile e-commerce sales in the UK increased by 66%, more than three times the 18% growth rate of the UK’s overall e-commerce. As British consumers become more and more accustomed to shopping with mobile devices, mobile e-commerce is expected to grow by double digits in the next four years. According to eMarketer’s forecast. By 2021, mobile e-commerce sales in the UK will reach 58.5 billion pounds, accounting for 51.7% of total e-commerce sales.
Top 10 e-commerce platforms in the UK
Figure 2-14 shows the top 10 e-commerce platforms in the UK in terms of traffic in the first quarter of 2018. eBay UK ranked first, with a traffic share that increased by 4 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2017; Amazon UK, ranked second, and Argos, ranked third, had a traffic share that decreased by 2 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2017. According to statistics, the average monthly visits to the top ten e-commerce platforms in the first quarter totaled 874 million, which was relatively stable overall.
With the popularity of mobile devices, 58% of the traffic of British e-commerce platforms comes from mobile terminals. Among many leading e-commerce platforms, Argos, Very.co.uk and Wish have the highest share of mobile traffic.
Regarding the source of traffic, direct access traffic is the main source of traffic for each e-commerce platform, accounting for 25.5%, and natural search traffic is second only to direct access traffic. It is worth noting that brands have strong traffic-generating capabilities in the UK, and 86% of direct traffic is related to brands. In addition, in March 2018, the referral traffic obtained by Amazon UK accounted for 72% of the total of the top ten e-commerce platforms. Referral traffic often brings higher conversion rates to e-commerce platforms.