Online shops bag 21 per cent jump in internet purchases

ONLINE shops were the big winners last year, with UK internet retail sales up 21 per cent on 2008.

Retail Decisions, a card fraud prevention firm, yesterday estimated that UK web sales hit 49.8 billion in 2009.

The data came as Shop Direct, the online and home shopping group which owns Woolworths.co.uk and Littlewoods, said it expects to grow underlying earnings this year. It yesterday posted a 6.3 per cent rise in Christmas sales.

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The firm said it was helped by a better-than-expected performance from the Woolworths arm. Shop Direct launched the site in June after buying the brand in the wake of the collapse of the 100-year-old stores group.

Steve Makin, finance director of Shop Direct, said he expected to grow earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the year ending April 2010 from the 111 million achieved in the previous 12 months.

But he signalled the group – which has been loss-making at the pre-tax profit level since it was created by brothers David and Frederick Barclay in 2000-3 – was not ready to look at a stock market flotation.

Makin said: "We're on track to do that (make a pre-tax profit]. But certainly we feel we're several years away from getting to the levels that we think the business should be generating."

Makin said Shop Direct's focus in 2010 would be on developing its new very.co.uk brand. The fashion site achieved sales growth of 26 per cent over Christmas.

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