Online sales boom defies the recession

The jury may remain out on the extent to which the high street enjoyed Christmas, but online sales continue to go from strength to strength, according to new figures from Retail Decisions. It said yesterday that a strong Christmas trading performance helped to drive a 21 per cent surge in online sales to an estimated £49.8bn last year, with more than 33 million Britons having bought products on the net.

Carl Clump, chief executive of the payment processing specialist, said: "In 2009, 30 per cent of online sales took place in November and December, underlining the importance of the holiday season to retailers."

The figures support the view that retailers had a better festive period online than in stores. On Tuesday, the home shopping group Shop Direct said its sales had jumped by 6.3 per cent for the six weeks to 1 January 2010 thanks to strong internet sales of electricals.

For the first time in 10 years, sales of white goods, such as washing machines and fridges, were the best-selling product category by volume, driven by people buying essential items during the recession and the rush to beat the VAT increase on 1 January, said Retail Decisions. Mr Clump said: "Necessities such as white goods for the kitchen took first place followed by laptops, widescreen TVs, digital cameras, games consoles, MP3 players, NetBooks and the iPhone 3G."

Retail Decisions said that slimming pills, such as the popular Alli brand, were actually the second-biggest selling product by volume. The top five busiest online shopping days of the year – all Mondays – took place in November and December. On 7 December, crowned "Mega Monday" at the time, sales were up 16 per cent at £534m.