UK online shopping growth dwarfs other retailers

LONDON: A surge in the number of Britons shopping on the Internet helped online retail spending grow 15 times faster than the overall sector last year, a report showed on Monday.

Retail analysts Verdict Research said their measure of overall retail spending grew a modest 1.5 percent in 2005 as shopkeepers bore the brunt of penny-pinching consumers hit by higher household bills and slowing house prices.

Official statistics showed retail sales values rose 1 percent.

But online retailers bucked the trend, enjoying a hefty 28.9 percent rise in spending, outdoing growth of 27.4 percent in 2004.

Verdict said almost half of last year's 3.9 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) growth in overall retail spending went to online sellers -- even though the sector accounts for just 3.1 percent of total retail spending.

"E-retail is redefining how people select retailers, enabling them to choose products that precisely meet their requirements, empowering them to find the lowest price product and allowing them to shop at a time that suits them," said the report's author, Nick Gladding.

The UK's online shopper population rose by a quarter in 2005 and one in four consumers now shops on the Web, Verdict said. The fastest growing age group is "silver surfers", with the number of 55-plus Internet shoppers doubling last year.