The UK's top 100 imported consumer goods (2023)

In 2021, the top 100 consumer products imported from the UK generated the most spending totaled $357.6 billion. That dollar amount represents 52% of the total value of all goods imported from the UK ($688.2 billion).

The 5 most valuable consumer products imported into the UKduring 2021 it was gold, cars, oil, gasoline, cell phones and computers.

The total dollar amount of the top 100 consumer products imported from the UK leveled off with an increase of 1.4% from 2020 to 2021, compared with an increase of 8.5% for all goods imported from the UK during anus.

Britain's total purchases of imported goods, both general and consumer goods, increased at a slower pace than the world average increase of 26.5% from 2020 to 2021, incorporating all importing countries and all imported goods.

Among the top 100 consumer products imported by the UK, 71 have increased in total cost from 2020 to 2021, while 29 have decreased. Changes in UK consumer demand for key imports provide future opportunities for international suppliers to correctly anticipate which uptrends or downturns will continue.

Economics educator BoyceWire defines a consumer product as an end product or good that a company creates for consumers to buy. For example, consumers typically buy refined oil at the pump, while imported crude oil is an intermediate good subject to further processing before being sold to end users.

While there may be some wealthy individual buyers, products such as turbojets are excluded from the consumer products targeted by this study. This is because turbojets are often purchased by corporations. Instead, it is common for the consumer to buy a motorcycle.

This article focuses on 3 different types of consumer products.

convenience productsthey are readily available, not durable, relatively cheaply priced, and therefore often purchased by consumers. Examples of convenience products are food, alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, and soap.

shopping productsthey are not readily available, require more time to make a purchase decision, are durable, and are not purchased as often as most convenience products. A great example of a buy product is a cell phone where buying the wrong model is a much more expensive mistake than buying stale bread.

Special productsdescribe another type of consumer product. This gray area includes items that are infrequently purchased, expensive, durable, and sometimes rare. Consumers may consider the product's brand image when making their purchasing decisions. Some examples of specialty products are gold, silver, diamonds, jewelry, and branded refrigerators and dishwashers.

The following marketing intelligence research table shows the UK's 100 most valuable imported consumer products in descending order. Items were selected at the four-digit Harmonized System tariff classification code level.

The fifth column of the table identifies the type of consumable for each entry.

You can also read the biggest increases or decreases in commodity values ​​from 2020 to 2021. To do this, click on the title in the fourth column.

The most popular product type in the UK is Shopping Products (SD), headed by Cars, Mobile Phones, Computers, Car Parts or Accessories, Trucks and Miscellaneous Furniture. Groceries account for around half (47) of the UK's top 100 consumer goods imports.

In second place, with 35 entries, are convenience products (CP), led by petroleum gas, medicine, processed petroleum oils, wine, bread and candy, and miscellaneous items made from plastic.

Special Products (SY) posted 18 entries. Examples of special products are British imports of gold, silver and jewellery.

durable consumer productsthey are commodities such as cars, refrigerators and furniture that last a relatively long time. Consumers can use durable products over and over again. For the product type, note that all shopping products and specialty products are considered consumer durables.

Non-durable consumer products(ND) are goods that are not reused after consumption. Alcoholic beverages and bananas are examples of nondurable goods. Convenience products are non-durable consumer products only.

Based on the product types identified in the table above, 65 of the UK's highest value imported consumer products are durable, while the 35 convenience products are classified as non-durable.

Fastest growing consumer imports

Listed below are the top 10 imported consumer goods in the UK that saw the biggest percentage increases in spending from 2020 to 2021.

1. Petroleum Gas: increase of 344.7% (US$ 26.8 billion)
2. Electric generator sets, converters: up to 190.6% ($2.3 billion)
3. Diamonds (unmounted/unmounted): up to 156.9% ($1.6 billion)
4. Silver (raw): up to 125% ($6.2 billion)
5. Hot-rolled iron/non-alloy steel articles: up 78.7% ($742.2 million)
6. Nitrogen fertilizers: up to 55% ($816.8 million)
7. Whole fish (fresh): up to 53.7% ($995.3 million)
8. Trucks: up 52.6% ($8.9 billion)
9. Wrist/pocket watches with normal cases: up 47.3% ($1.13 billion)
10. Trailers: up 45.2% ($1.16 billion)

Among previous winners, 8 items are durable goods that consumers can reuse over time. Digging deeper, 4 of the durable items are purchase products that require a comparatively longer time to make a purchase decision, while the top 4 earners are specialty items that are purchased regularly, i.e. generator sets or electrical converters, diamonds, silver and nitrogen fertilizers.

The fastest growing convenience products are petroleum gas and fresh whole fish. Consumers often see these items as non-durable products commonly referred to as disposable goods and are therefore only used once.

Consumer imports with the worst drop

UK spending on the next 10 items fell at the fastest pace between 2020 and 2021.

1. Miscellaneous Textiles: -84.4% drop ($820.7 million)
2. Gold (crude): -39.2% down ($53.7 billion)
3. Miscellaneous plastic items: -28.7% ($2.7 billion)
4. Print books, paperbacks: -24.1% ($1.02 billion)
5. Miscellaneous food preparations: -21.1% decline ($1.61 billion)
6. Computer parts and accessories: -20.4% down ($1.58 billion)
7. Footwear (textiles): -19% down ($1.61 billion)
8. Paintings and hand-drawn drawings: -17.1% down ($1.13 billion)
9. Pork: down -16.6% ($955.7 million)
10. Unrecorded sound media: -15.1% down ($1.28 billion)

Three of the UK's top 10 declining imports are non-durable convenience products, namely miscellaneous plastic items, miscellaneous food preparations and pork (pork). Gold and hand-drawn paintings or drawings are specialty products that make the loser's list.

The remaining 5 import refusers are purchase products that typically require more time for buyers to make purchasing decisions. Purchases in the shopping products category are more likely to be delayed than convenience products.

This analysis reveals competitive suppliers targeting UK demand for its top 5 consumer imports.

The UK's largest imported consumer product by value is gold.The UK's other top 4 consumer imports are cars, petrol, mobile phones and computers.

Below you can find the main countries that supply the main imports to the United Kingdom.

Gold:Russia (28.4% of the total), Canada (18.2%), United States (15.8%), Switzerland (7.4%), Kazakhstan (6.5%), South Africa (4.6 %), Uzbekistan (3.3%), Mexico (2.9%). ). ), Spain (2.5%) and Australia (2%).

Cars:Germany (39.5% of the total), Belgium (11.7%), Spain (8.1%), Mainland China (6.3%), South Korea (5.8%), Japan (4.2 %), Slovakia (3.4%), Netherlands (3%). ), Turkey (2.8%) and France (2.6%).

Petroleum gas:Norway (74.1% of the total), Qatar (8.2%), United States of America (5.3%), Russia (4.7%), Netherlands (4.2%), Algeria (1.5 %), Peru (1.2%) , Belgium (0.2%) %), Trinidad and Tobago (0.1%) and France (also 0.1%).

Cell phones:Mainland China (54.7% of the total), Vietnam (11.2%), Netherlands (6.8%), India (3.1%), United States of America (3%), Taiwan (2.9% ), South Korea (also 2.9%), Germany (2.5%), Mexico (1.5%) and Ireland (1.2%).

Computers:Mainland China (61.9% of the total), Netherlands (8.1%), Poland (5.4%), United States of America (4.5%), Germany (3.8%), Ireland (3. 5%), Taiwan (2.5%), Czech Republic (1.5%), Vietnam (1.3%) and Thailand (1.2%).

More great research:Top UK Imports by Top Supplier Countries,The 100 Most Valuable Consumer Imports for Sale in Ireland,Top 100 Consumer Products Imported from the US,Top 100 consumer products imported from China

The independent insights and analysis presented in this article are based on researched facts and statistics obtained from the following educational portals.

boycewire,Definition of consumer goods.

Central Intelligence Agency,The World Factbook: UK Economy.

international Mall,business map.

investopedia,Consumer goods,Definition of consumer staples,Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).

More comprehensive country reports,The 100 richest countries by GDP.

commercial economy,UK consumer spending.

Wikipedia,List of largest consumer markets.

The main exports of the world,top 10 UK imports.