Britons most prolific cyber-shoppers

NEWS Over two-thirds of surfers shop from home, with just 31 per cent dodging the gaze of their supervisors to buy while at work. The latest survey from Amazon.com, based on the experiences of 2,072 European Amazon shoppers, also found that UK surfers, along with the French, are the most prolific in Europe, with one in three visiting more than 10 stores a month. The figures come from market research conducted by Amazon.com in 11 countries across Europe, including all the major ecommerce markets. The British and the Irish are the worst offenders when it comes to eating into company time with cheeky online buys. Forty-six per cent of Irish surfers shop from work and four in 10 Britons do the same. Convenience and day-and-night availability were the biggest two factors making people shop online as opposed to on the high street. Cost was only the fourth most important factor. Germans, it appears, live up to their reputation for efficiency, being the smartest shoppers, with half locating and buying exactly what they wanted online. In contrast the Swedes are the most impulsive with 46 per cent of them admitting to commonly surfing intending to buy one thing but ending up buying something completely different.