E-retailers buck gloom as 17p per £1 is spent online

Despite the economic gloom, online shopping shot up by 38 per cent year on year in the first six months of 2008 and now represents 17p in every £1 that consumers spend. The £26.5bn-worth of internet buying between January and June is roughly equivalent to half of all supermarket sales and larger than clothing and footwear purchasing combined, says the annual e-retail survey from IMRG and Capgemini.

Web shopping is expected to account for between 30 and 50 per cent of all retail spending in the next five years, although the traditional January and June dips were more pronoun-ced in 2008 than 2007. Mike Petevinos, the head of retail consulting for Capgemini, said: "While online retail is not immune to the credit crunch, it is showing greater resilience than the high street. The online channel continues to give thanks to the traditional drivers of convenience and choice, but these appear to be magnified by the current economic environment."

The most significant growth is at the top and bottom end, while mid-market sales were down by around 6 per cent. Clothing is particularly strong. Some £1.76bn-worth of clothes were bought over the internet in the first six months, with a 21.8 per cent rise in March alone.