Online shoppers still spending

Fashionista has always found browsing the Internet a good way of getting in some fashion research and yes maybe occasionally that does involve checking out the relative merits of different sites' sales processes. It seems she is in good company however since recent sales figures indicate that the e-commerce sector is still holding out pretty well.

At the end of last month the IMRG announced its latest e-Retail Index findings which it regularly produces with CapGemini and revealed that shoppers may not be as prevalent on the high street but they are turning up in healthy numbers to their virtual equivalents. Figures show a 9% month on month growth this year with annual growth at around 19% (although this is still down on the same time last year).

There have also been some notable individual successes reported recently. In particular, last week Asos announced that a boom in international sales resulting from the weakness of the pound and its price-conscious market positioning had led to a massive increase in sales by 104% for the year ending at 31 March 2009. They continue to be optimistic for the rest of the year.

Good signs indeed. Right, time for some more research....