Visa: Britons top online shoppers

Credit card provider Visa has said Britons are the biggest online shoppers in Europe.

11:19 12 November 2004

Credit card provider Visa has said Britons are the biggest online shoppers in Europe.

New figures confirm UK shoppers as the most prolific spenders in the virtual marketplace.

The UK accounts for 69 per cent of all European online sales, despite strong growth in other countries, with UK Visa card holders spent 12 times more than their nearest rivals in Germany in 2003, a total of 2.4 billion.

Vice president of Visa Europe, Hugo Bottelier commented: "The growth in internet shopping over the last few years has been exponential . . . The UK continues to dominate the market, but other countries are beginning to catch up."

He added: "Internet shopping is diversifying as it grows - more and more consumers are turning to the ease and convenience of the internet not just to buy high street products, but increasingly to buy services, pay bills and conduct online bookings and reservations."

Visa Europe noted that travel and entertainment dominated online credit card sales, with internet bookings of aeroplane tickets, hotel reservations and theatre/cinema seats continuing to grow across the region.

The Interactive Media in Retail Group believes that this rise in online shopping can be linked to the increase in broadband internet subscribers in the UK.

"We expect half of all home to have broadband in the next two years and having broadband means people shop online," IMRG chief executive James Roper noted.