The British public's passion for shopping online is growing, and won't stop. At the start of 2004, we spent twice as much as we did this time last year. This growing trend is reflected both in the UK and across Europe, where each quarter, year-on-year, online spending is approximately doubling.
Total UK internet sales figures for the first quarter of 2004 were more than twice that of the same period in 2003 an increase of 123%. Outside of the UK, all the major European markets experienced healthy e-commerce growth year-on-year. Spain showed the biggest growth (166%) while Italy (144%) and France (140%) have also more than doubled their Internet spend. Germany, already a huge market for shopping online, had 83% growth over the year. One of the IT firms taking advantage of this huge surge in consumer confidence is Midlands based company IT Solution who have made a big impact on Internet users by becoming one of the biggest online suppliers of blank CD and DVD media in Europe. This remarkable feat has been achieved just 2 years after launching their website www.bigpockets.co.uka time period which has also seen them grow from just 4 to 35 members of staff. Their website selling blank media and PC hardware currently receives around 18 million hits per month, with over 200,000 customers having purchased online since its launch in February 2002.
