The ‘digital revolution’ has helped many UK share investors make brilliant returns on their invested cash over the past decade. Themes like the rise of e-commerce, the growing role of automation to help companies cut costs, and the birth of the mysterious-sounding Internet of Things have all proved happy hunting grounds for many stock pickers recently.
It looks like the digital revolution could continue to generate fatty profits for plenty of UK shares in the 2020s too following the Covid-19 outbreak. Here are three British stocks I’d happily buy for my Stocks and Shares deadline before the 5 April deadline:
Cloud 9
Flexible working practices have been steadily growing in popularity thanks to technological improvements. The 2020 pandemic and its effect on millions across the globe has reinforced the idea that partial or full homeworking will become the new normal. Recent polling shows that fewer than one in five Britons, for example, will want to work out of the office five days a week following Covid-19 outbreak.
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I believe all of this will play into the hands of Iomart Group. This UK share offers cloud computing platforms via its vast network of data centres. These allow workforces to carry out their work seamlessly and stay connected. Beware, though, that problems at said centres is always a risk that could cause huge operational problems for its clients.
2 UK shares I’ve already bought
2020 was a tough year for the broader retail sector. Covid-19 lockdowns and weak consumer confidence caused revenues to collapse for legions of bricks-and-mortar retail operators. However, these conditions favoured online-only retailers and those with extensive Internet operations as shoppers flocked online. Restrictions prompted swathes of new online shoppers to emerge, leading swathes of analysts to upgrade their forecasts for e-commerce growth in the 2020s.
There are many ways that UK share investors can latch onto the e-retail theme. And I chose to buy Clipper Logistics and Tritax Big Box REIT for my ISA. These companies provide warehousing and logistics services that allow retailers, product manufacturers, and couriers to get parcels from businesses to consumers (and vice versa). Bear in mind, though, that changing consumer trends (from people preferring to spend on experiences instead of products and the growing importance of sustainability) could hit demand for their expertise in the future.
Another top ISA buy
The digital revolution has led to exponential growth in the activity of cyber attacks and online fraud too. So companies and governments are having to spend more and more to tackle the problem. This was illustrated by the UK government’s plans announced last week to boost spending on cyber protection.
This is a problem that is boosting profits at Avast though. This FTSE 100 stock saw organic sales of its products rise almost 8% in 2020. And I’m confident this particular operator has the scale to take on mighty US industry giants like Microsoft and McAfee. That said, cyber attacks are becoming ever-more sophisticated and this represents a significant challenge to security companies like this. A high-profile failure to keep one or more of its clients protected could prove devastating to future revenues.
