Britain a 'nation of digital shopkeepers'

Britain has become a "nation of digital shopkeepers", with the Internet industry as a whole now the fifth-largest contributor to gross domestic product, according to a report.

The Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by Google, found that domestic online shopping, broadband access and net exports of digital goods and services made up 7.2 per cent of UK GDP - ahead of the construction, education and transport industries. About half of that sum is generated by e-commerce activity. While the UK lacks a homegrown online retail giant on the scale of Amazon or Ebay, BCG found that a multitude of small and medium-sized businesses are taking advantage of online distribution. BCG found that companies making the greatest use of the web for sales and marketing grew at an average of 4.1 per cent annually over the last three years. Lower web users grew 0.6 per cent a year.