Research from the UK's Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) shows that 10% of all credit card payments are now made online, a five-fold increase since 1999.
According to the data - which covers the last six months of 2003 - 72% of the 22 million Internet users in the UK either bank or shop online, with half doing both.
The average number of online purchases per shopper has almost doubled since 2000. In 2000 6.7 million online shoppers each made an average of 6.5 purchases that year. In 2003, the number of shoppers has tripled and the average number of times they shopped online rose to 11.2.
Sandra Quinn, director, corporate communications, Apacs, says: "It's no real surprise that the Internet is being used by more of us more of the time to shop and bank. It's convenient, secure and ideally suits the time-poor society we live in."
According to Apacs' estimates almost 13 million customers used online banking services in 2003. One of the most popular uses for Internet banking is for the payment of credit card bills, says the card body, and more than six million (20%) card holders viewed statements online during H2 2003.
Apacs says most online shoppers prefer to use a credit card rather than a debit card when shopping over the Web, possibly because of the increased protection.