The UK leaves the rest of Europe behind when it comes to shopping online, according to the president of Unilever Europe, Jan Zijderveld.

In a speech at the ECR conference in Brussels, Zijderveld said 23% of Brits routinely shopped online, while Germany trailed in second with 11.7%

But despite the low numbers, Zijderveld warned continental retailers the online channel was about to “explode” and urged them to be ready to take advantage.

It was one of many speeches and seminars to encourage retailers to capitalise on the online opportunity, which IGD’s head of Europe research Cecile Riverain described as “The biggest change in our retail careers”.

Tesco’s grocery home shopping COO Barney Burgess revealed that Tesco.com generated £2bn sales a year from 400,000 online orders a week - and was “profitable”.

But online shopping was just getting started, he agreed, with just 5% of Tesco’s sales online. Burgess highlighted smartphone shopping as the channel to watch, but said it was vital retailers were ready to meet the needs of a new breed of customer before entering a new channel.

“Ten per cent of our traffic is from a mobile device and 60% of our customers have a smartphone,” said Burgess. “Where Tesco has slipped up in the past is where we haven’t put sufficient focus and resource behind something. We all have to make sure when we step into a new proposition we have lined ourselves up behind it.”

Meanwhile, author Peter Hinssen urged retailers to “move fast” to grab the opportunities that were opening up for them. “Walls of subways are now paved with QR codes for ordering groceries,” said Hinssen. “Retail has never been more exciting. It’s mind-bogglingly spectacular stuff.”

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