Looks like another breakthrough e-tailing season, unless you're German

Britain and France appear well on their way to another record year for online holiday shopping. But don't expect much of a gift from your German friends. Traffic to German e-tailing websites has been in decline for the past month, according to the latest stats from web measurement firm ComScore.

According to ComScore, UK traffic to online stores climbed 34 per cent and in France it jumped 27 per cent "versus the average weekly online shopping activity in the eight weeks prior to the start of the Christmas shopping season". In Germany, visits to similar sites is down 3 per cent. "This lack of online retail growth is consistent with the softness in retail spending in Germany that has been widely reported,” said Bob Ivins, comScore EVP, European Markets. (The detailed results are in the chart below - click for a full-size version.)

There's a lot riding on this year's e-commerce sales. High street sales could be hit by consumer concerns about sagging credit markets. So far, that hasn't proved true online. On Monday, Britons spent more than £750,000 online in a single minute, good for yet another breakthrough in UK online shopping, demonstrating the UK could very easily overtake the prediction of £1 billion-per-week in online retail sales.