ICT Activity of UK Businesses, 2011

Figure 1: Proportion of total turnover derived from e-commerce sales

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E-commerce sales represented 19% of Annual Business Survey (ABS) total turnover in 2011, up from 18% in 2010.

Total e-commerce sales are estimated by aggregating sales received over a website and sales received over Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of documents in a standard electronic format. In 2011, the estimated value of e-commerce sales was £483 billion.

In 2008, total e-commerce sales were valued at £335 billion. In 2011 this had reached £483 billion, an increase of £148 billion, based on current prices. The average yearly growth in e-commerce sales since 2008 was 13% over the period 2008 to 2011, with total growth since 2008 of 44%.

Other key points from this release are:

• Website sales represented 5.0% of total turnover in 2011, up from 4.6% in 2010;

• In 2011, 93% of businesses had broadband internet and 81% had a website;

• 5.8% of businesses had broadband with a connection of 100Mbps or more, with 34% of the largest businesses (1000 or more employees) using this high speed broadband.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Background notes

1. This is the latest in a series of annual releases about ICT Activity of UK Businesses, commonly referred to as E-commerce and ICT. The results are in respect of 2011. The source of the information is the E-commerce Survey of UK Businesses. The 2011 survey selected approximately 7,700 businesses with 10 or more employees, in the  manufacturing, distribution and parts of the service sectors of the economy.

2. Further information and user feedback

   As a user of our statistics, we would welcome feedback on this release, in particular on the content, format and structure. For further information about this release, or to send feedback on our publications, please contact David Matthews:
   Email: ecommerce@ons.gsi.gov.uk
   Telephone: +44 (0)1633 456756

   E-commerce statistics,
   Room 1.362,
   Office for National Statistics,
   Government Buildings,
   Cardiff Road,
   Newport,
   Gwent,
   NP10 8XG.

3. Next publication

   Date of next ICT Activity of UK Businesses publication: November 2013.

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   A quality report (76.2 Kb Pdf) for the survey is available on the ONS website.

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   These National Statistics are produced to high professional standards and released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.