Shoppers might have given high-street stores an unhappy Christmas but internet sales rose by a fifth as consumers spent £3bn online.

Despite the run-up to Christmas having been described as the weakest festive season for a decade for shops, online traders have been quids in, according to the Interactive Retail Media Group.

The global e-retail organisation has reported that stores without websites have done less well than those with them as online shopping having accounted for 6.3 per cent of spending in the UK.

The group's chief executive, James Roper, said he expected e-retailing to grow by 40pc - to about £5bn - by the end of the year.

Growth was slower this Christmas than last year, but the entire marketplace has been more difficult and e-commerce hasn't escaped that, he said.

It has still done really well and, as the take-up of broadband increases and more retailers invest in their online sites, more shopping will move online.

Other research suggests Britons are the biggest online shoppers in Europe.

Some 30pc of UK consumers have bought more than 16 items online in the past year, half again as much as the figure for Europe as a whole, according to a survey commissioned by the European Interactive Advertising Association.

And more than a quarter of UK buyers have spent more than £1000 online in the past 12 months, 10pc higher than the European average, latest statistics reveal.

Association chairman Michael Kleindl said: The results show how consumers in the UK have adopted the internet and its time-saving capabilities to their lives more than other Europeans.With the increasing penetration of broadband across the UK this isn't a surprise but as it becomes more widespread across Europe this gap will close and the uptake of online shopping will increase.

A spokesman for retail analyst Verdict added: E-retail saw exceptionally strong growth in 2004 . . . over six times the level of overall retail spending growth.

"This was driven by ever higher numbers of shoppers, as well as higher average spend, with one in four consumers now shopping online."

"Retailers who have invested online are at last beginning to reap rewards, with Tesco, Next, Amazon and Argos all beginning to create meaningful profits from their online operations."

taken from icnewcastle