Internet sales will continue to grow and the web channel will claim more than half of the retail market pie by 2026, according to research.

The gloomy retail environment suffered from a 3.9 per cent sales slump in June, according to the Office for National Statistics. But on the flipside, wider access to broadband has generated record web sales of £26.5 billion this year so far.

The trend will be sustained in the years to come, said the research carried out by UK comparison site uSwitch.

Yearly online sales are forecast to rise £163bn by 2020, which represents 44 per cent of the retail market. And the web will account for half of all retail sales by 2026.

Apart from access to broadband, the rising price of fuel is the main reason behind consumers’ inclination towards web shopping, with users spending an average of 1.6 hours each week buying on the internet, said the report.

Online sales in the UK were nearly 40 per cent higher in 2007 than Germany, as well as France, Italy and Spain, it added.