Gasta Travel: Online travel search to exceed to £56bn by 2014

Online UK retail and travel sales are expected to increase to £56bn by 2014, according to Forrester Research.

The research house expects online sales to grow by 6% a year from its current level of £37bn as consumer spending continues to shift online.

According to the research, which is due out later today, fashion was the fastest growing area of online retail during 2008. Books, DVDs and travel were the most frequently bought items over the period.

The Forrester research, which places the UK's online spend ahead of that in France and Germany, expects the number of UK online shoppers to grow from 30m this year to 37m by 2014.

In January the first new media age online shopping survey revealed 36% of people plan to do more shopping online and less on the high street this year.

The FT Group has reported a 13% rise in profits for 2008 to £195m, spurred on by its digital and subscription businesses.
In its end of year results parent company Pearson said 67% of the publisher's revenues now come from digital, up from 28% from 2000.
FT.com subscribers rose 9% to 109,609 in 2008, while registered users grew from 150,000 to 966,000.
The company posted revenues of £796m, up 7% from 2007.
A statement by Pearson said, "Looking ahead, we believe the FT Group's premium and global positions, combined with our digital and subscription businesses, put us in a good position to weather tougher economic conditions."
It also said FT.com benefited from the launch of the new access model involving registration for access to more than three articles per month.
In January the Financial Times announced plans to make 80 job cuts due to the global recession (nma.co.uk 12 January).