The internet global supermarket is booming because people and businesses are looking for bargains and new outlets in bad times, a new report says.

And the this great global shopping mall can only expand rapidly as mobile phone use explodes, the Chinese get involved and advertisers jump in, the OECD forecasts.

But the e-trade revolution is being held back by hidden frontiers, ranging from concerns over privacy of personal information, language problems, delivery costs and taxation and regulation barriers.

As the Christmas spending spree, vital to many retailers and manufacturers around the world, gets under way, the OECD also highlights other worries for consumers.

For example, Santa Claus may never turn up with the goods, or the purchases may be defective, or payment details may be stolen.

These are among the obstacles to increased cross-border trade, paradoxically even within the European Union, which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development lists in a report on a conference under the heading: "Empowering e-consumers."

New life

The report found that the financial crisis had breathed new life into electronic commerce, with sales rising in Europe, the United States and China at a time when the store-based retail sector struggles as consumers' disposable income shrivels.

"The financial and economic crisis appears to be giving a e-commerce a boost as consumers search for ways to reduce expenditures by purchasing items online," the OECD said, adding: "The savings can be substantial."

It cited a study showing that shoppers in Britain, Germany and France can save 17 percent by buying electronics goods, DVDs and clothing on online trading platforms rather than in physical stores.

In the United States on-line sales for 80 retailers rose an average of 11 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to another study.

One site, Craigslist, is forecast to report sales of $100-million this year, a 23 percent increase from 2008. Another platform, Amazon, had net sales of $177-million in the first quarter alone, up 24 percent from the first quarter 2008.

The OECD cites a study by the Forrester research group predicting that western European consumers will buy ?123.1-billion worth of goods online by 2014, for an average annual growth rate of 9.6 percent.

China too has experienced a jump in online retail activity. The online auction and retail website of the country's leading e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, reported a 131 percent rise in transaction volume in February compared with a year earlier.

Helping to spur electronic commerce is the growth in mobile phone use. The number of mobile phone subscribers grew at an average rate of 30 percent a year from 1993 to 2007 in the 30 industrialised economies in the OECD.