Shopping Neutral!

Hate the rush? Shop indoors! (flickr)

Smart shoppers are finding new ways to beat the credit crunch and maximise their spending power, according to research by eBay in the UK. The report reveals that Brits are amongst the savviest shoppers in Europe and are the second most ‘Shopping Neutral’ nation after Germany. The UK beat France, Spain, Austria and Belgium in a report that identified a new wave of shoppers that offset their spend by re-selling goods online.

Researchers at eBay defined ‘Shopping Neutral’ by comparing the activity of users who bought and sold on the site within a 10% margin (e.g. someone who buys £100 worth of goods and sells at least £90 worth during the same time).

The findings are based on analysis of over 100 million online transactions carried out by buyers and sellers on eBay.co.uk, across 13,000 categories, over the past year. The research reveals some other surprising shopping trends across the country:

• Northampton is the caravanning capital of the UK
• Bristol buys more men’s dancing shoes that any other British city
• People in Wolverhampton spend more on fake tan than anywhere else forking out a whopping £14,000 on the “sun-kissed” look last year
• Parents in Norwich are the most frugal in the country when it comes to buying and selling baby clothes and prams
• Weirdly, Norwich is also home to the nation’s most eager bagpipe buyers, with the city’s population spending £2,500 on the instrument last year

The emergence of Shopping Neutral behaviour is driven by several wider consumer trends. Eco conscious shoppers are recycling goods and reducing household waste by selling on unwanted items and extending product lifecycles. Those feeling the pinch of the credit crunch are shopping in new ways, including price comparison shopping to source the best deals, selling goods to fund new purchases or swapping items to incur no cost at all.

Julia Hutton-Potts, spokesperson for eBay in the UK, comments: “With the credit crunch hitting we’ve noticed that consumers are increasingly savvy in how they reduce their shopping footprint, whether that’s comparing prices, sizing up the resale value of goods before purchasing or being ruthless about selling on unwanted or unused items to fund future spend.”