UK spending more online

Although consumer electronics purchases through the web are down, online sales are up
Although consumer electronics purchases through the web are down, online sales are up

In typical bulldog spirit, the British are laughing in the face of an impending credit crunch and abusing their credit cards online.

Figures out today show that, in May, UK consumers spent a whopping £4.5 billion, which is 1.6 per cent up from April's figures, according to the MRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

While a 1.6 per cent increase may sound marginal, when you look back on the figures a year ago, spending on the web is up 30 per cent.

Careful spending

Speaking about the results, Anthoula Madden, vice president of Capgemini UK's Consumer Products and Retail Team said: "Online sales across the board are more robust than on the high street.

"But falling property prices and persistent news of a credit crunch are causing UK shoppers to become more careful with their disposable income."

So, what were internet-savvy shoppers spending their hard-earned on? Well, bad news for us tech heads as sales of electrical goods is down by 10 per cent. As is alcohol but TechRadar doesn't think that these two statistics are releated.

The big increases are actually happening in the clothing sector, which was up by 4 per cent. The sector which includes accessories and footwear saw a spike in sales most likely to do with the summer weather.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.