Brits go mad for online shopping

UK online spending continues to soar and shows no sign of slowing, according to the latest figures from credit card giant Visa.

For the first quarter of 2004, Brits spent more than double the amount compared to the comparable quarter in 2003. Visa cardholders alone ran up an incredible £2.4bn in online sales during the first three months of 2004.

Travel and tourism remains in the vanguard of the retail boom - with sales across the sector up 159 per cent on the same period during 2003. However, in terms of percentage increases, the grocery sector was the biggest winner, more than tripling sales because of the growing number of shoppers doing their weekly food shop in the virtual aisles of online supermarkets.

And it's not just the UK. Ecommerce spending across the whole of Europe has experienced a resurgence, with markets such as Spain, France and Italy all experiencing a doubling of sales.

According to Visa, security is still the major concern for shoppers and banks alike because with increasing amounts of spending comes an increasing temptation for fraudsters and cybercriminals.

Hugo Bottelier, vice president of Visa EU, believes the credit card companies have to keep working on new and more secure systems for processing online transactions.

Many credit card companies are developing and trialling systems to verify card holders and ensure their payments are legitimate. Visa is now rolling out its 'Verified by Visa' scheme to customers, which it claims will reduce disputed online transactions by 80 per cent by solving the issue of card-not-present transactions being more prone to fraud.

Such offerings typically generate one-time passwords or PIN codes from the credit card, which shoppers on affiliated websites will be asked for - thus guaranteeing a genuine card was present during the transaction.