The most lucrative moment in British online shopping history began at 1.09pm yesterday when more than £750,000 was spent in a single minute, according to an internet monitoring company.

Nine minutes after their lunch break began, office workers joined other online shoppers to create the “Mega Minute” – the peak shopping moment of the year.

Experts predicted that online sales would reach £370 million yesterday, the peak for the year. It surpassed the £291 million record set on the so-called “Mega Monday” last week, and is expected to remain unbroken until Christmas next year.

During the peak minute an average of 128 people every second spent almost £100 each – a total of £767,500 for the minute. The most sought after items were the Nintendo Wii games console, followed by the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano digital music players, Boots No 7 Protect and Perfect face cream, and Gillette’s Fusion razor sets.

Carl Clump, the chief executive of Retail Decisions, which monitors online transactions to detect fraud, said that the Wii was losing its grip as the bestselling item because retailers are having problems with supply.

Monday is traditionally the biggest day for online shopping because customers spend their weekends browsing in high-street shops and discussing ideas for gifts with their families before going online when they return to work.

This year has seen a boom for online shopping as Britons embrace broadband internet connections and grow accustomed to using their credit cards online. The total online spend for 2007 is predicted to be £53.3 billion, 76 per cent higher than the £30.2 billion recorded for 2006, and the £42 billion experts had predicted.

The traditional Christmas rush has prompted Britons usually reticent about spending online to make their first foray into e-retail. An online survey of 1,200 people by eDigital Research suggests that 87 per cent of people would buy some presents online and 63 per cent would buy most of them online. Everyone questioned said that online shopping is more convenient.

James Roper, the chief executive of the Interactive Media in Retail Group, said that improvements to websites and familiarity among consumers had created the “perfect storm” for online shopping. He added that bad weather had also worked in its favour.

The biggest problem for retailers is expected to be coping with demand. In recent years, retailers have been unable to fulfil late orders in time for Christmas. An estimated 500,000 presents arrived after December 25 last year.

Experts do not predict a tight Christmas for high-street stores this year because shoppers appear to be ignoring the credit crunch, but next year will see many retailers go to the wall. Gavin George, head of retail at Ernst & Young, says that we are in for a “fairly bleak” first six months of 2008.

A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium said that the growth in online shopping was not yet a threat to high-street shops because internet spending represents 6 per cent of total retail spending – rising to 12 per cent in December. “With one or two exceptions, the biggest online retailers are also traditional retailers,” he added.

The top ten

1 Wii games
2 Apple iPod Shuffle, 1GB
3 Wii accessories
4 Apple iPod Nano, 8GB
5 No 7 Protect and Perfect Face Cream
6 Gillette fusion Power Razor pack
7 Champagne and truffles
8 Technika SH-340T Digital Camera
9 In The Night Garden — Iggle Piggle Dancing Plush
10 Tom Tom 1GB

Source: Retail Decisions