ONS: Weekly online sales reach £238m in December

23rd January 2009

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that weekly e-commerce sales reached £238 million in December.

This represents a 2.8 per cent increase compared with June 2008 and indicates that the web accounted for 3.5 per cent of all retail sales in December, the government agency said.

The figures refer to web stores selling goods to consumers for personal and household use and exclude services purchased over the internet.

"ONS includes internet data in its retail sales figures but has now started extracting the numbers for internet-only stores, as well as high street and other stores with an internet element to their business," the ONS said in a statement published today (January 23rd).

The figures contrast with recent statistics published by IMRG, which showed that more than £4.67 billion was spent online by UK consumers in December.

However, the figures refer to transactions completed via interactive channels from any location, including in-store.