Supermarkets have increased their share of online retail by 50 per cent in the past two years.

According to Hitwise, the top 45 supermarket-operated web sites accounted for 6.6 per cent of all UK visits to shopping or classifieds web sites for the week to December 8. This was an increase of 4.4 per cent for the same period in 2005. It is likely that there will be a further increase in visits to supermarket sites this week.

Non-food has been the main driver of this growth, with electricals and entertainment offers being the most searched-for products.

Hitwise director of research Robin Goad said: “There is no doubt that supermarkets are gaining on their online rivals. As with the offline world, this growth is being fuelled by non-food sales.”

Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose’s online wine stores were all in the top 10 wine retail sites visited in the week.

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