Online boost for retailers

While the problems in the high-street retail world have been well reported, there has been one glimmer of hope for smaller firms - the online sector.

According to a poll carried out by Actinic, online sales saw a pretty big jump for the second consecutive year.

The firm surveyed small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about their online sales and found that there was a 48 per cent increase in turnover and a 43 per cent jump in orders placed in the last two months of the year, compared with the same period in 2007.

A similar rise had been found between the months in 2006 and 2007.

“This is the sixth poll we’ve conducted and the survey results confirm analysts’ pre-Christmas expectations that the percentage growth in online shopping would once again far exceed growth in high-street sales,” said Nick Kington, Actinic managing director.

The firm also discovered that many shoppers held off from making purchases until the last moment possible, which Actinic believed was down to consumers looking for the cheapest possible deal.