The number of Britons sharing products and purchases on their social network has surged by 11% to 36%, making it the second highest growth region in the world, new research says.

But according to the latest Rakuten E-commerce Index, the US remains top dog when it comes to social shopping, with 39% of consumers sharing products with friends on social networks.

Brits are also the biggest online spenders, dropping an average of £1,088 per person every year – much higher than the global average spend of £464. The UK also leads among Western countries in the mobile shopping stakes, with 12% of people regularly using a smartphone or tablet to splash the cash.

However, the biggest global contributor to social shopping is Indonesia, says the research – the country which is flies the highest in the mobile shopping stakes, with 14% of consumers reporting they mostly shop with a smartphone or tablet.

Rakuten’s marketing director Adam Stewart commented that social login (which we’ve discussed at length recently) has played – and will continue to play – an important role in these increasing figures.

“Social is set to become increasingly important, for example Gartner predicted earlier this year that 50% of information on new customers will be based on social network identities, such as ‘login with Facebook’, by the end of 2015, which is up from less than 5% today,” he said.

“As an industry we need to build consumer confidence in social shopping platforms, as well as allowing shoppers to easily share content through these channels.”