The case for e-commerce

If you are still doubtful about online trading and whether it’s for you, read on. For there’s been a lot of compelling independent evidence produced lately that will help make up your mind on the subject.

Broadband connections, for instance, are how almost 70 per cent of all UK internet users access the web. Dial up connections, say the government National Statistics Office, continue to decline in number and now make up fewer than 31 per cent of all internet connections in the UK.

And what the UK online population is doing in growing numbers is shopping. According to the Interactive Media and Retail Group (IMRG), online shopping has rocketed by 45 per cent in the past six months, with web purchases accounting for 10 per cent of all retail sales in the UK.

In total, web checkouts are now ringing up £30 billion of retail spending, with a further £30 billion of offline retail sales being influenced by information obtained from the internet. In fact, IMRG research has revealed that an estimated 90 per cent of buyers researched their purchases online before buying on the high street.

During the remainder of 2006, just over half of the shoppers surveyed said they planned to cut back on their high street purchases. Forty five per cent, meanwhile, stated they would probably increase their volume of online spending.

As has been mentioned on previous occasions, the fastest growing part of the UK online population are silver surfers, with nearly one in every six UK Web users aged 55 or over.

New data from web research company, Hitwise - which coincides with Age Concern’s Silver Surfers Week devised to provide computer and Internet training for older people – shows that one in six UK web users is aged 55 or over.

In the four weeks ending 20 May 2006, 15.7 per cent of visits to all categories of websites were from silver surfers. Top destinations for this age group were Google UK, MSN Hotmail and eBay.

“The websites that are receiving the highest volume of visits from silver surfers are the same as the websites that are receiving the most traffic overall,” said Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. “Search engines, email, and portals are the most popular destinations no matter the age group. Comparing the top 10 sites visited by silver surfers with those visited by the 18-24 age group, there was only one difference – MySpace, the popular social networking site.”

Among the most popular searches for the plus 55s are travel sites, particularly cruises. Silver surfers accounted for 38% of visits to cruise ship websites in the past four weeks, which is more than twice the average for all categories of websites.

Family-oriented sites were the next most popular web location, attracting the second largest percentage of silver surfers with 34 per cent of visits to this category. Included within this category are genealogy sites. Biggest traffic grabbers in the roots surfing category are Ancestry.co.uk and Genes Reunited.

Another internet landmark to be passed is the registration of the five millionth dot UK domain name. The record breaking domain was hosepipebanbuster.co.uk, registered by Watermatics Ltd, an irrigation company based in Hertfordshire.

When founded a decade ago, Nominet registered 2,000 .uk registrations in its first month of operation. Today, this figure has leapt to 144,000 registrations per month, making Nominet the world's fourth largest Internet registry.

Of the domain names registered, 57 per cent are associated with a live website. This means that there are almost three million live .uk web sites.

"In the run up to our 10th anniversary celebrations, we are delighted to reach the landmark of 5 million .uk registrations," said Lesley Cowley, Chief Executive at Nominet. "The UK market for domain names remains incredibly buoyant, with companies increasingly building a web presence into their central business strategy. We look forward to a bright future for .uk domain names."

Fifty per cent of .uk domain names point to e-commerce or business information sites, with a further 16 per cent displaying 'under construction' holding pages for businesses or individuals. There are also around 170,000 .uk domain names registered for personal use, with a rise in demand attributed to the increase in broadband use and people using the Internet at home. There is also a strong renewal rate of about 70 per cent, which suggests that .uk websites are being used and are valuable to the people that own them.

As Nominet chalk up their five millionth domain registration, a new top level domain - .mobi - is being rolled out. First crack at names has been reserved to trademark holders in the mobile phone industry. Their week-long reservation is followed by a ‘sunrise period’ for all trademark holders, starting from June 12 until August 21.Domain registration is then open to the public from August 28.

The .mobi domain is intended as a signpost to sites and services that are optimised for a mobile device. For further information visit www.gTLD.info