imrg - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

The UK's online shoppers reportedly spent £767,500 in just 60 seconds at 1.09pm yesterday, breaking previous records.

Yesterday was also expected to become the country's biggest ever online shopping day with up to £370m being spent, according to payment processor Retail Solutions.

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.

New research suggests that trust in online retail is improving, though 24% of shoppers still have concerns over the issue. 

According to the IMRG’s E-Customer Service Index, confidence in e-commerce security has risen 2% over the past three months to 76%.

The continuing postal dispute could have a serious impact on online sales this Christmas, as customer confidence in delivery is damaged by the uncertainty.

James Roper of IMRG told The Telegraph that online retailers are already concerned about the strikes, and that customers will quickly lose confidence in buying online if the strikes continue.

Just under four fifths of internet shoppers are happy with the retailers they use online, according to new figures from the IMRG.

The report found that the web was customers' preferred channel for two categories of goods - 64% of respondents preferred to buy books, DVDs and CDs online, while 56% preferred to shop online for travel bookings and tickets.

UK shoppers will soon have spent more than £100bn since internet shopping began, according to figures from the IMRG.

The etail group says that the first online transaction in the UK took place in April 1995 - the purchase of a book from WH Smith via CompuServe.

The IMRG's annual statement says etail is growing faster than ever before, and predicts online sales in the UK will reach £78bn a year by 2010.

The group says £42bn will be spent online by UK shoppers in 2007, up from £30.2bn last year, while worldwide online sales will hit £250bn this year.

Online retailers have had a more successful Christmas than their high street counterparts, with IMRG reporting that high street sales are down , and online sales up by between 40 and 50% compared to 2005.

Larger internet retailers like Tesco and Amazon seem to have enjoyed a particularly successful Christmas period, with both setting records for online sales.

The IMRG has predicted that the UK online sales boom will continue through Christmas into next year, with the internet driving sales of up to £42 billion in 2007, up from about £30 billion this year.

The prediction comes in the wake of the biggest ever month for online retail sales. A record £2.7 billion was spent online last month by UK shoppers, beating the record set last December.

UK retail sales were higher than expected in October, with sales boosted by the growth in online shopping.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the volume of retail sales increased by 0.9% in October, higher than analysts’ predictions of 0.3%. This represents the biggest monthly rise since November last year.