Led by UK shoppers, Europe has finally started clicking the “buy now” button. Total online retail spending in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy reached almost €41bn last year, up by a third in the UK and France, and somewhat less elsewhere.

The UK is by far the most internet savvy of the big European economies – shoppers did about 5 per cent of all their retail spending online last year, compared with 1.6 per cent in France and 0.5 per cent in Spain, according to Mintel. That is largely because UK online supermarkets have enjoyed great success. Three of the top 20 European internet retailers are UK grocers, led by Tesco in fourth place.