Figures from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Capgemini show that around £13.16billion to be spent online in the final quarter of 2008 and it would be 15 percent higher than the same period last year.

Though it may be a major rise, it would indicate a slow-down on online shopping growth.

It is expected that 8 December (a Monday) is going to be the UK’s most zealous shopping day when an estimated £320million to be spent online.

Almost 42 percent of the shopping will be made outside of usual shopping hours, before shops opening in the morning or after 6pm.

However, the peak shopping hour will be between 1pm and 2pm on 8 December when around £28million to be spent for online shopping.

IMRG Chief Executive James Roper says: “Britons will hammer the credit crunch with Internet prices on this Xmas, as they will spend around a billion pounds each week in the run-up.”

“The internet will serve as the most powerful weapons against tough times. There is enormous pressure on retailers and suppliers to price competitively this year, and we can expect a lot of volatility out there and fantastic bargains as well.”

These security concerns and issues prevent the potential of e-commerce from growing and developing as stated by John Horrigan, Pew Internet Project’s Associate Director and author of the said report. These risks remain to be questionable whether they are just perceived by the internet users or they are real, after all.

Horrigan had stated that despite the level of maturity that e-commerce had gone through over the years, the confidence and trust of people with regards to this still remains an unresolved issue. He further stated that if only the internet users and potential online shoppers would stop worrying about security concerns, there would be a lot more people shopping online. Horrigan further estimated that the percentage of American consumers using the internet to do online shopping could go up by 7%. This can be achieved if worries about threats and loss of security would be lessened.

However, a lot of experts in payment security agree that credit card purchases done online are, generally speaking, more secured than purchases done in stores or shops contrary to what American people are thinking. Numerous brick-and-mortar retail sellers are behind the curve in terms of security of payments according to Rob Tourt, PCI Security Standards Council Chair. One reason is because a lot of traditional retailers still run old systems that do not have the security mechanism developed in the newly developed and more hi-tech e-commerce payment systems. Moreover, when the credit card is swiped by the cashier, the retailer actually captures a lot more information, Tourt disclosed to InternetNews.com. This is because a lot of data can be snagged via the credit card’s magnetic stripe. This can actually compromise the account in cases of breach.

Another data gathered from the research indicates that people use the internet in order to make researches about certain products rather than buying. Another finding is that Americans from the low-income households see a lot of risks in online shopping compared to Americans who are from the elite class. And finally, 39% of the people who participated in this research had claimed that they are doing online banking; this is in comparison to the 27% that resulted in the Pew study made last February of 2005.

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