Sleeping on the job

Retailers risk losing sales through their online shop by ignoring evening demand for live support.

The UK is fast becoming a nation of online shoppers with sales across the retail sector outpacing in-store growth to reach 14.8% of all online sales last year.

This is up from 9.3% back in 2011 with growth to 15.6% predicted for 2017 according to figures from accountancy giant BDO. In fact, the vast majority – 83% – of internet users in the UK bought something online in 2016 (Eurostat), and timepoor consumers are increasingly opting to use it to purchase everything from groceries to fashion on an ever more regular basis.