When it comes to Christmas shopping, the biggest priority among UK consumers is avoiding crowds, cited by 32% of those 18 and older.

As UK consumers settle on new ways of shopping and buying post-pandemic, retailers must keep pace and cater to these new habits.

Next year in the UK, digital video ads will make gains, Brexit will continue to complicate ecommerce and data privacy rules, and retailers will reimagine the in-store experience.

Insider Intelligence spoke with Martha Welsh, who leads strategy, operations and go-to-market initiatives for Google Commerce, which includes Google Shopping, Travel, Payments, and Next Billion Users.

Ecommerce helped retail out of a sticky spot during the pandemic, and those habits formed during lockdowns will endure, as digital demands more attention than ever—37.5% of all retail sales this year will be ecommerce sales.

During the pandemic-induced lockdowns in 2020, many UK-based shoppers confined to their homes saw little need to shop for apparel, and even now, as restrictions ease, apparel will still not be a consumer focus.

Proximity and peer-to-peer mobile payments are on the rise in the UK, thanks to high user adoption of mobile and banking. However, growth is slow, which means that wallet providers looking to crack the market will need to get creative.

The share of food and beverage ecommerce sales in the UK will rebound to pre-pandemic levels in the coming years.

Digital ad spending across several industries in the UK has been up-and-down the past two years. There will be across-the-board growth this year, but at uneven rates, ranging from 33.0% for travel to 7.8% for automotive.

Former UK P2P giant Zopa closed this part of its business to focus purely on banking services

JPMorgan kept its eye on technology and the crypto trend—no matter what Jamie thought personally: The banking giant’s 2021 featured a UK digital-only launch, fintech acquisitions, crypto offerings for retail clients, and advocating for staff in branches to become licensed advisors.

UK banks can capitalize on removal of open-banking friction: The Financial Conduct Authority’s repeal of the 90-day re-authentication mandate for users—plus an upcoming rollout of convenient repeat payments—will help banks enhance the customer experience.

Klarna implemented a number of changes to make its UK business more transparent and limit consumer BNPL risks.