More and more people are buying goods online, a new report has revealed.

Online sales of non-food products in the UK grew 19.2 per cent in December compared with the previous year (16.5 per cent), according to the latest BRC-KPMG Online Retail Sales Monitor December 2013.

The popularity of tablets and smartphones will no doubt have helped contribute to the increase in online sales during the festive period and businesses with the best websites reaped the rewards, according to David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG.

He said that retailers with "slick multichannel operations that were able to offer consumers the flexibility to shop how, and when, they wanted to" were the winners.

"With one in five items bought on the internet in December, this really was an online Christmas for the retail sector.

"The statistics show that while store sales continue to flatline, online sales remain the main driver of growth for the sector, contributing nearly three quarters of the uptick in non-food sales in the last quarter of 2013," he added.

Business owners will need to ensure their websites are better than their competitors' in order to secure sales. The time it takes for a site to load is very important too; as research shows that some 40 per cent of users will abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load.

Bob Dowson, director of NCC Group's website performance division said:

"The continued rise in online shopping means that website performance is more important than ever. If e-retailers want to attract and retain shoppers, they should focus on making the consumer experience as simple and efficient as possible.

"A website that's slow to load is akin to a shop with massive queues. Customers won't wait - they'll simply go for a competitor's offering instead."

You can test your site here with NCC Group's free performance tool which will show you how you compare against your competitors.

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