A recent survey of global shopping habits by KPMG has suggested that shoppers in the UK have been embracing technology at a much faster rate than many other countries.
Their survey indicated that across the world, 65% of shoppers prefer to buy goods like CDs, DVDs, books and games online, whilst in Britain the figure is 77%.
The survey involved 9,600 consumers in 31 different countries between the ages of 16 and 65.
When it comes to purchasing goods and services, the majority of people in the world now prefer to use social networking sites and online review sites before buying.
The surveys results suggested that nearly three quarters of people in the UK are more likely to buy flights and holidays online and nearly two thirds used online shopping to buy their groceries.
Four fifths of people also confirmed that they have downloaded mobile phone apps.
The survey showed that 45% of people in the UK use their mobile phones to find nearby stores whilst out shopping. A further 32% of people also use their phones to research products and services online and 19% scan barcodes for information. Another 30% also indicated that they use online coupons.
Experts suggest that this lifestyle change may have a big impact on retailers, particularly during the Christmas period.
However, whilst UK shoppers appear to be ahead when buying goods, the survey suggested that they were reluctant to embrace mobile banking. Only 27% of respondents from the UK confirmed that they used mobile banking, compared to 52% globally.
UK consumers are also more reluctant to adopt ‘cloud’ online data storage rather than keeping the information on their own computers. Around the world, 65% of people use cloud computing, whilst in the UK, only 53% of people do so.
Tudor Aw, the European head of technology at KPMG, said: “The report also shows that consumers’ concerns over privacy and data security have increased over the last few years and companies across all sectors need to take this concern seriously.”