A new UN report into trade has shown that countries in Europe are the most active in terms of embracing safe shopping online, with all but two of the top 10 nations ranked in the report coming from this continent, according to The Drum.

152 states were assessed in total, with the Netherlands taking the top spot, just ahead of Switzerland. Tenth place went to Australia, making it the only country aside from Singapore to appear in the upper tier of the rankings which is not European.

Large markets outside of Europe fell much further down the table, with the US only managing to come in at 13th position as a result of the fact that internet access and the availability of delivery services are not as prevalent there.

China and Russia were much further down the table, coming in at 56th and 40th positions respectively. It is worth noting that the rankings were not based on pure sales but rather on the proportional uptake of e-commerce in each country scrutinised.

Across the UK and Europe an average of 80 per cent of people with access to the web make use of it to shop online, whereas in developing parts of the world this falls to as little as 10 per cent. This shows that it is affluence, as much as network connectivity, which plays a part in determining just how much retail activity is conducted online.

Report spokesperson Shamika Sirimanne said that this growing gap in the digital marketplace would allow richer countries in Europe to continue forging ahead with e-commerce adoption while other regions trailed behind. This is used as evidence that more needs to be done to invest in infrastructure elsewhere in the world to avoid this gap widening further.