Canny Scots shy of online buying

Many Scottish products are available on the internet

The Scottish Consumer Council has warned retailers that online shopping will not expand in Scotland unless customers can be reassured about security and quality.

In a survey, only 2% of adults said they regularly shopped on the internet.

Nearly 90% said they believed the High Street was a safer placer to buy.

According to the survey, the biggest fear about shopping from home or at work was the need to release credit card details over the internet.

As much as 43% of the 500 people interviewed said that having to give out credit card information was a major disadvantage.

Martyn Evans: "The internet is ideal for rural communities"

Another concern was not being able to check the goods before paying.

Nearly a third believed that there was a risk from fraudulent suppliers.

The council said that if e-commerce was to take off as a genuine alternative to the High Street, there had to be some significant improvements.

These include more secure mechanisms for payment; more protection for credit card transactions that go wrong and better information and guarantee standards from the new website retailers.

Scots least confident

The Scottish Consumer Council's director, Martyn Evans, said out of the 2,000 people surveyed in the UK, those in Scotland were least confident about online shopping.

"I don't know the reason why that is. But that fact is worrying for the Scottish economy.

"We need to have a robust consumer and internet shopping regime in Scotland - it is ideal for our rural communities.

"It is clear that there needs to be proper rights in place when things go wrong. Unfortunately, there will always be people who hack in to systems and in that respect I don't know whether it will be as successful as it's been hoped."