LONDON - ONLINE spending in Britain rose 14.2 per cent on the year in December, outperforming the wider retail industry but slowing from earlier in 2008 and suggesting the sector is not immune to economic downturn, a survey found.
Online retail industry body IMRG and consultants Capgemini said on Thursday online spending rose 25 per cent in 2008 to 43.8 billion pounds (S$95.5 billion), with growth slowing to 15 per centin the second half from 38 per centin the first.
They forecast growth would remain around 15 per cent in 2009.
'Our research provides further evidence consumers are turning to the Internet as the most efficient way to save money in the downturn,' said Mike Petevinos, head of retail consulting at Capgemini UK.
The British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday like-for-like retail sales fell 3.3 per cent in December, the biggest drop for the key Christmas trading month in its survey's 14-year history.
The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, which collected data from around 70 internet retailers, found shoppers spent 4.67 billion pounds online in December.
That was down 1.5 per cent on the month, which IMRG and Capgemini attributed in part to record sales in November.
A separate poll of 2,000 consumers found 37 per cent did at least half their Christmas shopping online and 60 per cent spent more online this Christmas than in 2007.
It also showed shoppers increasingly use the Internet to search for best deals, visiting retailer websites an average of 17 times for each online transaction.
Online clothing sales leapt 32 per cent in December year-on-year, auguring well for a trading update from online fashion group ASOS due on Monday.
Online spending on electrical goods was up 7 per cent but, in a sign consumers may be cutting back on luxuries, online spending was down 4 per cent on health and beauty products, down 11 per cent on lingerie and down 16 per cent on alcohol. -- REUTERS
