Online shopping is growing steadily in Western Europe, Forrester says

Online shopping has taken hold in Western Europe and will grow steadily over the next five years, according to a recent report from Forrester Research Inc.

The research and consulting firm estimates shoppers in 17 Western European countries purchased 71.0 billion euros ($96.2 billion) worth of goods online in 2008. By comparison U.S. online retail sales totaled $133.6 billion in 2008, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, 39% more than Forrester’s estimate for Western Europe. Online sales in Europe will grow to 123.1 billion euros ($166.7 billion) by 2014, a compound annual growth rate of 9.6%. Including leisure travel, online purchases in the 17 European nations will grow by 8% during the period, from 116.0 billion euros to 202.8 billion euros, Forrester says.

“This growth is due to a mix of factors, such as well-established mail order retailing, high population density, a wide variety of payment options, and above-average confidence in online security,” writes author Victoria Bracewell Lewis in the report “Western European Online Retail and Travel Forecast, 2008 to 2014.” “The U.K. maintains its lead as the largest online retail market in Europe, with more than half of its adult population buying online regularly.”

For the region as a whole, 37% of European adults, or 136 million consumers, regularly shop online, up from less than 15% in 2000. That percentage will grow to 54% by 2014, Forrester predicts.

Books are the most common product bought online, cited by 30% of online shoppers last year, followed by leisure travel (23%), clothing (21%), event tickets (20%), CDs/tapes/records (17%), videos/DVDs (17%), printer supplies (12%), computer software/video games (11%), footwear (9%), toys (8%) and computer hardware, consumer electronics and beauty products (6% each).

Nearly 45% of European Internet users say that in the past three months they have researched a product online and then bought it in a store. The main reasons for buying in store was a desire to see and touch the item (57%), followed by not wanting to pay shipping costs (28%), knew it would be easier to return a product bought offline (27%), wanted more information before buying (26%) and wanted the product immediately (21%).