Ecommerce sales represented 18 per cent of business turnover in 2012, down from 19 per cent in 2011, but up 4.5 percentage points from the 2008, according to the Ecommerce Survey of UK Businesses published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
In 2012, the estimated value of ecommerce sales was £492 billion, with the wholesale and manufacturing sectors reporting the highest levels of sales, £172 billion and £157 billion retrospectively.
Meanwhile, website sales represented six per cent of business turnover in 2012, up from 5 per cent in 2011. However, of the six per cent, approximately half were made by the largest UK businesses and the smallest businesses contributed only 0.7 per cent.
However, despite continual growth of ecommerce sales, the UK comes behind the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Ireland and Sweden in ‘proportion of turnover from ecommerce’.
The ONS report also revealed that 95 per cent of businesses have broadband internet and 82 per cent have a website.
