Shoppers will spend £1.75 billion online during the Christmas period, predicts IMRG, the industry body for e-retailers.

The estimate, which covers November to January, follows Forrester Research's prediction of £3.94 billion being spent online in 2001.

Sales are being enhanced by consumers growing confidence in internet shopping and high-profile advertising by leading brands such as Argos and Littlewoods.

Consignia's prime-time TV campaign features Elton John, who famously "likes to shop" and now equally famously "likes to shop online".

Paul Manning, managing director of Brighton-based fragrance and cosmetics company Island Trading said: "We've not seen a tremendous increase in the number of customers right now but confidence is growing and the value of the orders has increased.

"Before, we were getting orders of about £20. Now we are seeing online shoppers spending £50 or more."

But a number of regular internet users do not shop online and a recent MORI survey showed security and credit card fraud remained the main obstacles.

Geoff Davies, managing director of Brighton-based IT security specialist I-Sec, said: "If you shop online, there is a chance someone will make off with your credit card number but the odds are quite slim - not one in 100 or one in 1,000 but much more.

"The main difference is if you hack into the till of a High Street shop you might get a couple of credit card numbers - if you hack a big e-commerce site you might find 10,000."

Security risks could be exacerbated by increased traffic at Christmas.

"At Christmas many children are bought new PCs and you have got a whole new wave of potential kiddie script hackers, although they are more of an inconvenience than anything else.

"More importantly, sites come under an enormous amount of stress, especially because many of them are running on skeleton staffs.

"This means things don't work as well as they ought to and, if any compromises are to be made, they will favour sales over security."

Mr Davies said consumers should look for obvious signs of secure shopping, such as padlock symbols and look for companies which had signed up to the Which? Web Trader Scheme, which encouraged UK-based web sites to be safe and secure, even though it was not enforceable.

He said: "The law in this country is generally biased towards businesses, whereas in continental Europe it focuses more on consumer rights.

"The influence of European law is changing this and shoppers should take a look at the rights provided by the EU Distance Selling Directive."

Besides the Which? list, IMRG has launched a Safe Shops list of the best British online retailers. All the online shops listed are supporting the Internet Shopping Is Safe (ISIS) campaign, organised by the industry with the support of the Government.

Regular online shoppers might also consider using a service such as SafeDoor, which allows consumers to buy online without sending their credit card details over the internet.

SafeDoor works by holding your credit card details and passing them securely to registered retailers for you.

www.imrg.org
www.island-trading.com
www.i-sectesting.com
whichwebtrader.which.net/webtrader/index.html
www.dti.gov.uk/CACP/ca/policy/distanceselling/
newregs.htm www.safedoor.com