25 per cent of debit card transactions due to e-commerce

Friday, December 16, 2011 - 12:13 by Graham Miller

A quarter of all payments which are made from debit cards this month will be sent through sites offering safe shopping online, according to figures published by Barclays.

It is predicted that UK consumers will part with almost £29 billion using their cards in the run up to Christmas and 25 per cent of this will be paid to e-commerce companies.

The total spend during December across all payment methods is estimated to be around £49 billion and Barclays provided a further breakdown of this figure to show just where the money is being spent.

People travelling to visit their families will put £1.5 billion away at petrol stations, while supermarket food sprees will eat up £6 billion. Department stores will sell about £850 million in gifts, while roughly £7.25 billion will be changing hands after safe shopping online.

If there is any doubt about the power of e-commerce in the UK's retail market then these statistics should clear it from your mind.

Barclays spokesperson, Dan Wass, said that the frugality expressed by British consumers this year as a result of the tumultuous world economy is not necessarily going to have an impact on the amount which is spent in preparation for the festive season.

Part of the reason that people are going to continue to part with their cash is that retailers are aggressively discounting items to make them more appealing.

Mr Wass spoke out about the security of online shopping and said that payment card users should keep their PIN number safe and only use sites which are able to guarantee the safety of their personal information. He also discouraged people from carrying large amounts of cash with them when shopping on the high street to avoid problems.