One in every £10 will be spent online by 2012, according to the PayPal Online Retail Report conducted by Experian.

The study predicts the internet retail sector to grow by £8 billion, a leap of 36 per cent from its current value to be worth £30.6 billion by the end of the 2012. This compares to just one per cent for in-store sales.

Carl Scheible, managing director at PayPal UK, says: “Online retail is booming even in the current economic uncertainty because shoppers turn to the internet when they are trying to be thrifty. Two thirds of online shoppers are now convinced their money goes further online compared to less than half who believed it last year, an increase of 8.5 million people. The success of online retail really is the silver lining in the economic crisis.”

The report suggests that almost four million more online shoppers than last year think the best deals are available online (71 per cent or a total of almost 24.4 million people compared to 62 per cent in 2009) and nearly four million more online shoppers than last year also say that buying online makes it easier to manage what they spend (38 per cent last year increasing to 48 per cent or 16.5 million people this year).

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