Bad weather is good news for internet retailers

Industry body Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) said £326m was spent on clothing through the internet, amid snow and rain in April. The increase is in stark contrast to sales on the High Street, which have been bleak lately. Savvy high street retailers like Marks and Spencer are putting more investment into their online business to capture some of the spending that is heading away from their traditional outlets.

Some industry watchers are starting to believe the hype that swirled around in the dot.com boom of 2000 – when it was believed that the internet would change shopping behaviour fundamentally. The best evidence in favour of such an argument has to be the £150bn+ spent since then by UK shoppers online.