Online spend to double by 2010

By 2010, one in five purchases that would not have happened in a high street shop will take place on the internet, helping online spend to double by the end of the decade, according to PayPal.

In a study to coincide with the launch of its new guidance for e-businesses, the global payment system predicts that online consumer spend will reach £39bn by 2010.

The staggering increase, it says, will be driven by 24.9m new shoppers by the end of the decade, a 71% rise last year’s total. These will shoppers will also account for 49% of the adult population.

PayPal estimates that this growth will add a further £3.2bn in spending, as 20% of non-purchases on the nation’s high streets will be made at internet businesses.

The company has warned businesses to start trading online now or risk missing out on potentially huge profits.

“Over the past few years we’ve seen the internet gradually eating away at the high street,” said Carl Olav Scheible, Head of Merchant Services at PayPal.

“By 2010, we expect substantial sums previously spent on the high street to have moved online. We have worked closely with the market experts to produce a simple but effective guide which can provide small businesses with the essential tool kit that many of them are lacking.”

PayPal has launched its Trade Online Project, which outlines the seven building blocks of eCommerce and covers the different types of solutions to use and elements such as the ‘search and selection’ with the ‘checkout’.