Ecommerce UK: Online Shopping To Reshape High Street

[engine]

Travel agents, mobile phone stores and banks may disappear from high street as consumers buy more products online and resort to shops only for clothes and accessories, a report said on Thursday.

For holidays, MP3 players, bank loans and mobiles, the Internet is now the main driver for Britain's shopping habits, according to market researcher ACNielsen.

But the report found at least 50 percent of consumers still prefer to browse shops for fashion, jewellery and watches.

Ecommerce UK: Online Shopping To Reshape High Street [today.reuters.co.uk]

[rj87uk]

I would have to say take the article with a grain of salt. However it does raise some good points about shopping habits. Personally I dont think Travel agents will drop of the UK high street any time soon (that being said I do know that many of them are already gone!).

[longen]

Those that remain will move upmarket, leaving online holiday booking to become the "MacDonalds" of travel.

[sem4u]

A third of travel is booked online in the UK now, but I still see a place for travel agents on the high street. They can still offer additional value in the advice they can give. I prefer to check prices, hotel reviews and book online.

Book, CD and DVD retailers on the high street have been squeezed over the last couple of years thank's to low internet prices and supermarket competition. They are the ones who will continue to struggle and some of them have only really got their own online stores in order.

[johnyfav]

My family still go in to a travel agent. My mum doesn't know how to turn on a computer let alone booked a budget flight and hotel online.

I think my generation (I'm 25) are leading the way with online shopping yet I still want to go to the high street for many things. And browsing a few websites still does not have the impluse buy factor that I get when walking in to a couple of shops.

[piatkow]

I agree with johnyfav.

The driver for me is delivery channels. I feed the birds in the winter and am quite happy for a sack of seed to be left on the doorstep all day. My current computer was ordered over the web but collected from the store, I wouldn't want that much high value electronics sitting in hte porch. I don't use internet shopping for groceries because my work means that I can't guarantee that I will be at home for the booked delivery slot - any grocer that lets me order the basics over the net and call in on the way home to just pick up the order ready packed will get my business.

[wmuser]

A recent European research has shown that in Europe people prefer to shop online on holidays,buy travel tours but for everyday and off holidays shopping they prefer offline shops.

That has been reported on Euronews TV channel