Britons spend their way up the league table

Three months after Germany narrowly beat Britain in the online shopping stakes, the UK appears to have retaken the title. In October, a report suggested that only Germans made more online purchases than Britons, but the European Interactive Advertising Agency says UK internet shoppers made more purchases and spent more money online in 2005 than residents of any other European country.

Britons spent an average of £875 on 12 items, compared with Germans, who spent £405 on ten items and the French, who spent £254 on six items. Danes were the second-biggest online spenders, splashing out £734 on nine items.

The research, based on a survey of 7,000 Europeans, found that the proportion of Europeans using the internet on five or more days per week had jumped from 51 per cent to 69 per cent since the previous year, and showed that many people who bought offline chose to research products using the internet.

Glen Drury, managing director of the online shopping website Kelkoo, suggested that Britain’s enthusiasm for online shopping could be due to the more widespread use of credit cards in the UK than in other European countries, as well as the dominance of the English language on the web.

Both online and offline shops are still adapting to the changing retail landscape, he predicted. "There will be some things for which it doesn’t make sense to have a physical store," he said, adding that days of the CD shop may be numbered. "Many other products will move to a furniture model, where the store is more of a showroom."