An industry expert has stressed the importance of ensuring that company websites are easy to use.

While interactive elements can be effective for certain sites, the key feature is to make it easy for users to find what they need, according to e-consultancy researcher Graham Charlton.

He said: "People want to be able to visit the site, navigate around it easily to find what they want as quickly as possible and then to check out."

Mr Charlton added that negative aspects of websites, such as long payment forms, "can put people off".

In related internet news, figures recently released by the UK payments association Apacs showed that the number of people in the UK using online banking services has increased by more than 500 per cent over the last seven years.

According to the research, the number of phishing attacks targeting online banking customers has increased significantly in the past year.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'