Online shopping sees rise in consumer confidence

Consumers are becoming more confident about buying things over the internet, with one in three happy to spend more than £500 on a single item, a survey shows. Nearly nine out of 10 people also said they would happily buy something for more than £50 online, up from just 63% in February last year, according to internet payment provider PayPal.

The average person now spends £157 online each month, with a quarter of shoppers buying something over the internet at least every month, while 14% purchase something on a weekly basis.

More than half of consumers use the internet alongside the high street, with 26% looking at products in shops before buying them online, while 25% research products online but then buy them from a shop. CDs are the most popular things to buy online, followed by books and electrical goods, but increasing numbers of people are also buying clothes and insurance over the internet.

Men are twice as likely as women to feel comfortable spending large sums on internet shopping, with 42% saying they would happily spend more than £500 in a single transaction, compared with just 20% of women. Men also buy more online, making an average of 20 internet purchases a month, compared with women's 16.

Geoff Iddison, chief executive of PayPal UK, said: "People are feeling safer about internet shopping and are increasingly happy to spend big sums on single items." YouGov questioned 2,000 people during November.