Christmas 2009 is set to be a good year for online retailers, according to an industry expert.
Richard Perks, director of retail research at global consumer intelligence supplier Mintel, said that in the main people are actually better off at the moment than they were this time last year because of the lower rates of interest.
He added that, even allowing for the large number of people that are unemployed at the moment, the benefit to the others from the low interest rates is so big that it has outweighed that.
“On the whole, people are a lot more relaxed about their finances than they were at the beginning of the year and I think they are prepared to go out and spend,” he said.
Earlier this month, Chris Russell, director of eDigitalResearch, said that changes were occurring in the world of online shopping, with smart devices such as iPhones playing a larger role.