The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index have revealed that online spending rose by 19 per cent between March 2008 and 2009.

Expenditure also increased by nine per cent between February and March this year, with the clothing, footwear and accessories and gifts sectors registering the highest monthly and year-on-year growth - partly as a result of Mother's Day.

Spending growth slowed compared with previous years thanks to the financial downturn, but online retailers tapping into the Web 2.0 phenomenon seem to be seeing significant success regardless, said Tina Spooner, director of information at IMRG.

Such organisations are thriving as a result of the changing retail market and "by keeping up to date with current trends, including social networking and customer reviews, they have the ability to understand and communicate with their customers and therefore succeed during the economic downturn", she remarked.

Recent figures from Hitwise indicated that UK web users are spending more time on social networks, entertainment and news and media sites at the expense of e-commerce destinations.

It also said that e-commerce sites are seeing less traffic from pay-per-click ads than they were a year ago.