Online spending 'almost doubled' in 2003

Britons are spending almost twice as much money on internet transactions than they were a year ago, payment brand Visa announced today.

According to Visa's figures, UK spending on the internet for the final quarter of 2003 has grown by a tremendous 91% from the same period in 2002. In total, Visa cardholders in the UK made purchases collectively worth over ?1.8bn on the internet during the last year, as more consumers choose to turn their backs on the high street and do their shopping from the comfort of their own computers.

A report on online shopping released in December 2003 showed that the desire to avoid the stress of high street shopping, particularly over the Christmas period, has overcome concerns over the security issues associated with buying online.

Travel and tourism was the biggest sector for the second year in a row, with annual expenditure rising by 112% as Visa cardholders paid for more of their air travel, hotels and package holidays online, on websites such as British Airways, Ebookers.com, and Opodo. A greater number of people are also using the net to pay for their entertainment: the sector, which includes online bookings for cinema tickets and restaurants, grew by 180% over the year.

Hugo Bottelier, vice president of Visa EU, commented on the figures. "Christmas was undoubtedly a critical driver for online retail growth, but we are also seeing other sectors such as tourism and travel increasing their online stronghold."

"Web users are becoming confident and are diversifying their net spending. With consumers now able to benefit from new security measures, consumer confidence in shopping online can only continue to improve and we predict that the figures will carry on rising for some time yet," he said.

Basil Hyman, head of e-commerce marketing at Ebookers, confirmed the trend indicated by the report. "We've definitely seen an increase in online transactions," he said. "We believe it's down to a combination of improvements in technology making booking online faster and more effective, greater confidence among consumers and the fact that companies such as ourselves are becoming more widely known. We're not a new company anymore - we're bricks and mortar."