Though the final tally must wait until early next year, eMarketer expects UK online ad spending to show hard-won gains in 2009 and regain momentum in 2010 and beyond.

Throughout Europe, the recession has helped increase the sophistication of Internet marketing. The 2009 Marketers’ Internet Ad Barometer, prepared by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), found that 84% of respondents in 16 European nations were satisfied with the performance of the Web as an advertising medium. In most countries, digital media budgets will recover modestly in 2010 and allow online marketers to make even better use of their skills. Judging by the declared plans of marketers quizzed by the EIAA, aggregate online ad spending in those countries will rise almost 8% in 2010.

E-Commerce

Europeans are shopping online as never before. Yet the margins of most mainstream online retailers in the region will shrink further in 2010, as shoppers continue to demand value and inefficiencies are punished. In the UK—still struggling to emerge from recession—the e-commerce sector will consolidate in the short term, and the biggest merchants will tend to see the best results.

As economic revival speeds up in France, Germany and most Western European markets, more retailers will venture online for the first time. The number of Internet buyers will rise more slowly. In Eastern Europe, online shopping is less advanced and there is more room for rapid growth in buyer numbers. But most of these nations still face months or years of economic stress, making retailers wary of substantial investment in Internet storefronts.

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