Britons could be spending £8 billion sterling (€12.5 billion) a year on Internet shopping by 2004, rising to £50 billion in 2010, according to a report by economic analysts Business Strategists.

The report concluded that even on a more conservative projection, retail shopping on the net would account for £2.4 billion worth of sales by 2004 and £15 billion by 2010.

"Shopping in Britain is in for its biggest shake-up if, as expected, connections to the Internet reach `epidemic' proportions in the early years of the millennium," said the report, which foresees four out of five UK homes with Internet access by 2004. Britain's biggest Internet service provider, Freeserve, said earlier yesterday that its research showed 2.4 million new consumers could try web shopping before Christmas, on top of 4.8 million who already shop online.

The items most commonly to be bought through the Internet would be music, videos, books, insurance and banking services, travel and entertainment tickets and computer hardware and software.

Goods least likely to be purchased this way included fresh fruit and vegetables, hi-fi equipment, home furnishings, chemists' goods, spectacles and medical services, it said.