Fashion, Barbie dolls, Harry Potter merchandise and electronic gadgets helped boost online sales at AOL by more than 70 per cent, the company announced today.

The figures reveal that despite continuing economic uncertainty the popularity of shopping online continued to grow.

In total, AOL users spent a whopping $33 billion in 2001 - up 67 per cent on the previous year.

In Q4 2001 in the run-up to the holiday season spending increased 72 per cent to a record-breaking $11 billion.

AOL claimed that eight out of ten of its users shopped online during the last six months.

Last week AOL announced that it now has more than 33 million users. ®