UK shoppers spent £4.67bn online

New figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index show that UK shoppers spent over £4.67 billion online in December – an equivalent of £76.67p for every person in the UK – 14.2% up on December 2007.

Monthly growth fell for the first time since December 2002 with consumers spending 1.5% less online than in November. This is attributed to record high sales in November, which saw higher than average yearly growth, and the timing of Christmas 2008 where the peak shopping weekend fell on 29th and 30th November.

Supporting research from Capgemini reveals that shoppers are turning to the web to beat the credit crunch, showing how online spend can continue to grow despite static or falling growth on the high street. Whilst traditional factors such as researching the best prices online were reported by almost half (44.35%) of the 2,000 consumers surveyed, it is clear online retail is now part of mainstream shopping behaviour. A third of shoppers (37%) did more than half of their shopping online, with nearly two-thirds (59.9%) spending more online this Christmas than last year.