British businesses sold £23.3 billion worth of goods and services on the Internet last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says in its annual survey.
British online commerce represents roughly 2.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, an ONS spokesman said today. Online sales rose 39 per cent year-on-year, the report said.
Numerous research reports place Britain as Europe's biggest e-commerce zone, just ahead of Germany, Europe's largest economy. The sales categories that topped the British charts in 2002 were wholesale goods, retail goods, catering, travel and telecommunications goods and services, according to the report.
The biggest spenders came from the corporate sector, with British businesses purchasing €22.9 billion online in 2002, up 14 per cent from the previous year.
The ONS said that the e-commerce report, in its third year, is a preliminary survey of British businesses.
