Consumer Forum

The eagerly awaited first report from the Government’s Digital Inclusion team, just published, makes interesting reading. These government backed reports seldom offer anything of note. However, these findings, commissioned by Martha Lane Fox, the digital entrepreneur famous for co-founding lastminute.com, are different. Lane Fox was tasked representing people not yet online (10 million apparently) and creating a plan to bring the web to the socially disadvantaged.

The report is packed with a raft of new statistics highlighting just how important internet retailing has become.

It found that all households without the internet are missing out on an average saving of £560 per year. This is because it is cheaper to pay bills online and shop around for the best deals. Even just a calculation on the back of an envelope shows that four million economically disadvantaged families are missing out on savings of over £1 billion a year, which is staggering.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Lane Fox to carry out the research, also estimated that internet literate can earn an average increase in their lifetime earnings of over £8,000 – the price of a small family car (if bought over the internet!)

In conclusion? It highlights the economic argument behind getting people to use the internet to take advantage of the massive savings on offer (with companies like Chemist Direct leading the way). With the falling price in computer hardware, rise in computer literacy, and increasing broadband coverage across the UK, these are now exciting times to be an internet retailer.

Mitesh Soma – Founder, Chemistdirect.co.uk

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