Almost three quarters of the money spent on shopping comes from just 18% of consumers or ‘Super Shoppers’, a new by Deloitte and commissioned by eBay shows.

The shoppers account for 70% of all UK retail spending, splashing cash of more than £200bn in 2013.

These shoppers, who are aged 25 to 44 and working in professional or managerial roles, are twice as likely to shop via a mobile device and are 30% more likely to conduct research online before visiting a store.

And two thirds of UK shoppers rely on a number of tools to help them make decisions on purchases worth more than £100.

Ian Geddes, partner at Deloitte, said: “Compared to other consumers, these so-called “Super Shoppers” account for a larger share of spending, use a wider range of resources to research purchases and they do this using a greater variety of channels.

“Our study suggests that retailers can target this valuable group through a broad presence over a range of channels.”

The report also found that online sales do not cannibalise sales from stores in the fashion sector. It is a concern for retailers that online operations take sales away from their bricks and mortar stores but the research found that in the UK over 95% of online dress sales in the UK are additional to high street sales. 

Deloitte estimates that in the UK last year up to €9bn of sales may have been enabled by omnichannel retail.

Ebay senior vice president of Europe, Middle East & Africa Jacob Aqraou said: “This study shows that retailing is not about online versus offline, as they can work well together for customers. Consumers want the best of both worlds, shopping online and across multiple devices, and picking up or browsing in store.  As a retailer, if you don’t reach the consumer across all these channels, you are already missing out on valuable sales which could be hard to recapture in the future.”