In contrast to disappointing Christmas sales figures from the
High Street, on-line Christmas spending grew by 20% in the UK,
according to the latest figures from the Interactive Media in
Retail Group (IMRG).
On-line shopping outperformed the High Street by a factor of eight, says the e-retail industry association, with bricks and mortar retail sales growing by only 2.5% in what the British Retail Consortium described as "the worst Christmas for retailers in the last decade."
According to the IMRG, half of the UK population was shopping on-line this Christmas, spending more than £3 billion, which represented 6.8% of all UK retail sales. Stores without web sites paid the price in poorer sales.
IMRG valued total UK on-line shopping sales for calendar year 2004 at £14.5 billion.
