The UK’s love affair with online shopping is set to continue, despite a predicted sales decline, according to recruiters.

Research from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveals that there is a slowing rate of growth as online sales in June fell by 1.3% compared to May.

But Steve Walters, managing director at Faces Bespoke Retail Recruitment Consultancy, told Recruiterthat this did not mark a change in shopper behaviour.

“The recession is affecting everything and at some point it was going to affect like-for -like in retail. In new businesses the online sales may not be there.

“Online sales will pick up because of the new businesses that have gone into the online market, but on a like-for-like basis, they might be down.”

Peter Burgess, director for Retail HR, adds: “If they are down, it will be due to the recession. A lot of online retailers are doing extremely well.

“Some of the big retailers have not got a strong enough online offering yet. Online will suffer much less in the recession than bricks and mortar. We have just launched an ecommerce division recruiting specifically for that.”