Online shopping totals are up by 14 per cent on the previous year, according to the latest poll by a leading analyst.

The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index found that while the credit crunch is certainly working its effects on the market at large, UK web users spent around £10 more per transaction when they passed the checkout.

This meant that the average online basket totalled £131.76 in April, compared to the average of £121.69 in April 2008.

Despite this recession-beating trend, head of consulting for retail at Capgemini UK Mike Petevinos said that things are not as straight-forward as they seem.

He continued: "It is, however, clear that the online market is maturing, with seasonal fluctuations becoming more noticeable in certain sectors as they are no longer obscured by the 50 per cent-plus year-on-year growth rates of the past."

IMRG is a community for the e-retail industry and aims to maximise the commercial potential of online shopping.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.