“These are tough times for the food retailers. For the first time trading down is becoming a big issue, thanks to their own success in building premium ranges in the good times.

There’s a real scrap developing at the lower end of the market, but Sainsbury’s seems relatively immune, though it is doing the right things as well.

“As the cross channel shopper emerges as a higher spending customer, every retailer must ensure it doesn’t compete against itself by making stores and the website equally relevant and compelling and by driving customer traffic in both directions.

Although certain inflationary pressures are about to annualise (input prices towards the end of this year and VAT at the start of 2012) and that will ease pressure on retailers’ margins, a gloomier outlook for young people could mean a gloomier outlook for the clothing market unless better added value opportunities and promotions are explored”.

“Some 57% of TV owners have purchased a new television in the past two years despite the recession, encouraged by the 2010 World Cup as well as the digital switchover. Television sales will be muted for the remainder of this year, as economic recovery remains rocky. The London 2012 Olympics, some of which will be broadcast in 3D by the BBC, may encourage consumer interest in buying 3DTVs in the run-up to the Games.”

– Cecilia Liao, Senior Technology Analyst

“With less than a third of women finding it easy to buy clothes that fit, it can evidently be a struggle for most women to get the correct size, cut and style for their highly variable body shapes. If retailers made shopping for clothing more straightforward by standardising their clothing sizes or, at the very least, displaying size guides in-store to help the selection process, it would promote higher levels of expenditure – which is particularly important considering the current tough trading conditions on the high street.”

– Emma Clifford, Clothing and Fashion Analyst

This report provides an overview of online spending habits in 2010, assessing the value, growth and potential that the market has, in addition to the typical patterns of behaviour and adoption that consumers display when shopping online.