Around 12,000 businesses of all sizes were surveyed. The results show a 42% increase in on-line sales from 2000. The B2C share of on-line sales increased from 33% to 36%. Total sales to households increased by 53% between 2000 and 2001; sales to businesses increased by 36% over the same period.
Geographically, 81% of all orders were from inside the UK, 12% were from other EU countries and the remaining 7% were received from outside the EU.
Physical products accounted for 62% of sales in 2001, 35% were sales of services and 3% were sales of digitised products.
On-line spending exceeded sales. In 2001, there were £23.4 billion of on-line purchases made by firms in the non-financial sectors, 20% of suppliers being based outside the UK.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the methodology used for estimating trade in the financial sector is still under review.