The British Retail Consortium's Retail Sales Monitor showed an improvement in online retail sales over Christmas.

Christmas was the strongest period for online sales during the whole of last year, new figures have shown.

Last month saw sales online jump by 16.9 per cent on November's statistic as consumers purchased more of their Christmas shopping via the internet, according to the British Retail Consortium's (BRC's) Retail Sales Monitor.

Sharon Hardiman, head of Non-Store Retailing at the BRC, said the figures are proof that not only are people more comfortable with online retail, they also feel they can start their Christmas shopping later than they usually would.

"Christmas produced the strongest online sales growth of the year for non-food goods. Non-store sales are only about four per cent of overall retail sales but growing much more rapidly as people become increasingly confident about shopping this way," she stated.

Mark Newton-Jones, chief executive of the Shop Direct Group, recently highlighted the benefits of online retail, saying that consumers can plan and manage their shopping better over the internet.

Posted by Lucy Pritchard

Article Added: 12/01/2010 09:27:43