An e-retail index reveals just how fast on-line businesses are expanding in the UK, generating many new jobs and driving new export business.

The latest report from the e-retail body, IMRG, shows:

* 600,000 British jobs are now either directly in or supporting e-retail and e-commerce.
* The UK has 150,000 on-line retail businesses
* E-retailers employ six times as many staff as when they started trading
*78% of on-line retailers surveyed expect to recruit staff in the next year
* 39% expect to take on more staff within three months
* 88% of eBay retailers sought growth through cross-border trade in the last quarter of 2008.

It is only 16 years since the first UK e-retailers started in business – and since then the “Compound Average Growth Rate” (CAGR) of employment in on-line retail has been 19% (18.9%). If growth continues at this rate, it’s predicted that there will be one million e-jobs by 2013, and almost three million by 2020.

James Roper, chief executive of IMRG is reported as saying: “It’s clear that being competitive in the on-line marketplace is critical both for businesses and the economy. E-retail is making a huge contribution to the UK’s wider economic health, creating revenue, new employment and opportunities for people to purchase goods at lower prices.”

Tags: e-retail, e-tailers

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