UK e-commerce escapes recession

21 Sep 2001 17:28

An additional half a million British Internet users made secure online connections this summer

E-commerce is growing with a vengeance in the UK, despite the increasing threat of a global recession.

The number of British home Internet users making a secure connection to e-commerce Web sites increased by over half a million throughout the summer months, according to a new report from the Internet monitoring company NetValue. In May, the number of people exchanging confidential information with e-commerce sites stood at 4.414 million unique users, but this figure had risen to 4.962 million by August.

An increase in secure connections suggests that visitors are entering and transmitting their credit card details to a company online. "There is a higher proportion of people in the UK using e-commerce sites than ever before," said Alki Manias, vice president of NetValue. "As an e-commerce nation we are striving forwards."

Almost half of all UK visitors to an e-commerce site made a secure connection in August, setting the British e-commerce market well ahead of the rest of Europe. France is running a close second, with 41.8 percent of visitors entering the secure section of e-commerce sites, whereas only 33.5 percent of Spanish users, and 28.7 percent of German visitors, shopped online in the same month.

Manias said it is still too early to judge what effect the terrorist attack on the US would have on British e-commerce. "It will be interesting to assess the state of the e-commerce market as we move on through September, in light of the US events," said Manias. "News and information sites will definitely see an increase in traffic, but we have no idea of whether secure connections will be affected."

The largest group of people making secure Internet connections in August were 35 to 49-year-olds, who accounted for almost a third of all British e-commerce users. Twenty percent of 25 to 34-year-olds made a secure Internet connection, while 24 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds entered confidential information online.

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Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,2095837,00.htm