INTERNET shoppers brought a Christmas boost to Bolton firm Dabs.com -- with sales of more than £30.47 million.

The Bolton company, which claims to be the UK's leading online retailer of technology products, is celebrating a 26 per cent increase on sales in November and December, compared to the same period in 2002.

The total included £23.2 million of orders through the firm's website. The remaining £7.27 million was generated by the company's offline sales division.

Jonathan Wall, marketing director at Dabs.com, said: "In comparison to many ecommerce sites, Dabs is a relatively mature player. To continue sustained growth of this magnitude -- 26 per cent -- is a remarkable achievement and testament to the strength of our business model."

Simon Brayshaw, Dabs.com's financial director, said: "Our accelerated performance in the run-up to Christmas concurs with a growing preference by consumers for the ease of online shopping and doorstep delivery."

Internet shopping in the UK reaching a new high in November, soaring 44 per cent year-on-year.

Britain's 16 million online shoppers spent £1.175 billion that month -- accounting for seven per cent of all retail sales.

After the record-breaking pre-Christmas performance, Mr Wall said Dabs.com's forecast is equally bright.

He said: "We've enjoyed significant growth in terms of both sales and profitability for the past four years and we expect 2004 to continue this trend.

"We're confident that our new website, combined with the rapid growth in the online shopping market overall, will help us achieve further success in 2004."

"In October last year, we launched a new website which was completely redesigned to make shopping at Dabs.com easier and more intuitive -- a fact we firmly believe will help Dabs.com appeal to a much wider audience in the future.