Festive shopping takes off

Christmas online shopping is showing healthy signs, according to data supplied exclusively to e-volve. The survey for October, by Initiative Media Futures in association with BMRB International, found that:

– 300,000 people shopped online – 1 per cent of UK adults

– Total spend was &£16.5m

– Average spend was &£55

– The most popular gifts were CDs and books

Factors limiting spend included:

– Credit security fears (mentioned by 47 per cent of Net users)

– Late delivery fears (39 per cent)

– Need to order early (33 per cent)

– Poor customer service online (26 per cent).

Sue Elms, managing director of Initiative Media Futures, says: “We’re very optimistic about online Christmas shopping this year. Access numbers are 30 per cent higher than last year and the number of people buying online for Christ mas has treb led, from 1.8 million to 6 million.

“We predict people will have spent &£140 per head by Christmas, compared with &£115 last year.”

E-volve will be running updated weekly figures.

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