Click to spend - but people worry about fraud

The bumper Christmas online spend - set to be about 50% more than last year - will be followed by big internet sales in 2008, Deloitte's report forecasts.

Growth is driven by greater consumer ease with shopping online and the fact more firms now sell via the internet.

But rising online spending may cut high street sales, another report suggests.

Christmas dash

"We expect 2008 to deliver double digit growth in terms of internet retailing," said Tarlok Teji, head of retail at Deloitte.

Click to spend: - but people worry about fraud

"The number of people shopping online and the number of retailers with online stores are increasing quickly," he added.

"The strongest sectors will be grocery and clothing," he said.

Some consumers still favour the shops, wary of internet fraud, while others prefer handling products before they pay for them.

Those wanting last-minute presents still have to dash to the shops.

December's online boom will shudder to a halt on 20 December, the date people usually stop ordering because of delivery times.

The rise in online shopping has led to fewer people visiting shops, a separate report suggested.

More people visited shops in November than in October, with footfall up 6.4%, a report by Footfall showed, though the number of shoppers in November is down 2.9% against the same month a year ago.

But the number of visitors to shopping and classified websites jumped 22.4% in November on the previous month, the report suggested.