In the UK, upcoming 'Mega Monday' is forecast to be the busiest online shopping day of the year, just pipping the preceding 'Super Sunday'. Brits will spend over half a billion pounds via the Internet over the two days, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

A poll from CyberMonday.co.uk and YouGov, suggests that 45% of online UK adults plan to shop via the Net between 29 November and 6 December, with 27% to spend over £200 on Christmas gifts. A separate study from eDigitalResearch shows that 27% of Brits intend to do more online shopping this Christmas than last year.

David Smith, managing director, IMRG, says: "We estimate that £6.4bn will be spent in December alone, with total online sales for November and December set to reach £12.4bn. Consumers have looked to spread the costs of Christmas a bit more this year due to the economic climate, but December 6th is the day that our retailers expect sales activity to be at its highest."

Separately, research from Deutsche Card Services - based on real-life transactions - shows that the number of fraud attempts in European online trade has declined slightly.

In the case of the most popular e-commerce payment method - credit cards - fewer chargebacks after a cardholder complaint were caused by fraud attempts, says the firm. The share of chargebacks on the grounds that the purchase was not authorised by the cardholder or that the card was not presented fell by seven percentage points.

Non-payment risk is higher for British shops and customers than the European average - partly explained by the fact that there is no language barrier, attracting international fraudsters. The report shows that 3-D Secure security technology helps, with the non-payment risk declining if online merchants use it.