British shoppers spent a whopping £13.5bn online during the first six months of 2006, a new survey shows.
The Interactive in Media Retail Group (IMRG) says that growth in online spending is up 40% from the same period last year.
The group says that June's growth was ten times higher than the 3.7% recorded by the
Office for Statistics for overall retail sales.
There was an estimated £2.25bn worth of shopping conducted online in June, £853m more than the £1.4 billion for June 2005, the IMRG says.
The 37% year-on-year growth recorded in June brings the average increase for the first half of 2006 to 40%.
Internet sales broke through the £2bn-per-month barrier in November 2005 and have exceeded that figure every month since then.
Also, the detrimental effect of the World Cup on shopping appears to have been less pronounced online than it was on the high street.
© Crimson Business Ltd 2006
