In brief Online sales in the UK are booming, according to the latest government stats.

Brits spent a whopping £71.1bn online last year - up 81 per cent on 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Much of this online spending was conducted by businesses. Even so, e-spending by households rose from £10.8bn in 2003 to £18.1bn last year.

However, these are only "experimental statistics", according to boffins at the ONS so take them with an even larger pinch of salt than usual. ®

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