UK resident saves £1,700 in two years shopping online

Online shoppers prefer to get their wares on their web for a number of reasons, including convenience, selection and price. One Briton, Kara Gammell, told the Telegraph that shopping online saved her £1,700 in two years.

Gammell, who is getting married next month, started shopping online to keep her expenses down. She said she discovered a plethora of websites that provide items for deep discounts.

One example is freecycle.com, which Gammell used to help furnish her home. The website matches people who are trying to get rid of household goods and furniture with people who are looking for them. Users of the website can get lightly used furniture for incredible discounts, without having to pay the premium of a third party such as an antique store. Additionally, the site is great for the environment - it keeps furniture out of landfills.

Gammell told the paper that she also used online shopping to cut back on the price of her nuptials by purchasing her wedding invitations online. Some wedding websites even have virtual invitations that let guests RSVP online, cutting back on postage costs.

According to the paper, Gammell also saves by buying her groceries online - a growing fad in the UK after popular site Amazon has added an online grocer.

Britons have spent an estimated £250 billion in online sales in the last ten years, according to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retails Sales index. Approximately 50 percent of the country currently shops online, and by 2011, 32 million UK adults will be shopping online, according to statistics from Forrester Research.