Online spending to pass £15bn in Q4, says IMRG

by Graham Charlton 26 November 2007 12:01 0 comments Print

Online retail spending is set to pass £15bn in the last quarter of the year, according to stats from the IMRG.

The group says that higher interest rates and the credit crunch have slowed e-commerce growth slightly, but online shopping is still growing twenty times faster than offline.

The £15bn figure would be a 60% increase on the same period in 2006, while the IMRG has predicted that the UK's shoppers will spend £42bn online this year.

Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen are predicting that sales of Christmas related goods will reach £12bn in the UK this year, a 5% increase on last Christmas.

According to the BRC figures, the average person will spend £435 on Christmas gifts, 12% more than last year. Clothes, books, films and music are predicted to be the biggest sellers.

Graham Charlton is Editor at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin or Google+.