IMRG found that internet shopping increased by over 70% to £1.324 billion in December alone – a growth rate 31 times higher than that shown by High Street figures.
Consumers carried on shopping on-line right up to Christmas, bucking a trend established in earlier years of sales tailing off after the first week in December. This, said IMRG, shows increased confidence in delivery from on-line retailers.
EBay was the most visited site, with 25.5% of the market share, followed by Amazon at 8.21% and Argos with 2.31%. Other top sites include Kelkoo, Tesco and Comet.
The report highlighted WH Smith, House of Fraser and Selfridges as "On-line laggards who failed to embraced internet trading opportunities at Christmas" and "hemorrhaged sales as a result."
A broad range of products benefited from the splurge in spending, but the most notable beneficiaries were on-line retailers of electrical consumer goods, up a massive 95% on last December's figures, and retailers of alcoholic drinks – sales of which were up 82% in November on last year, and an additional 3% in December.
According to IMRG the internet shopping market is now 72% larger in 2003 than it was in 2002, with the record Christmas sales indicating a watershed in on-line retail.
"Retailing changed this Christmas. There will be no going back for millions of consumers who have now experienced for themselves that the internet provides a better way to shop for many products and services," said Jo Tucker, Managing Director, IMRG.
IMRG estimates "that internet shopping will double in value next year, in an overall retail sector that is unlikely to grow more than 4%, and then continue to grow to become 30% of all shopping within a decade, as shopping becomes increasingly 'customer focused' rather than 'shop focused'."