Shoppers at Multi-channel merchants' shoppers are buying more through websites, reports Internet Retailer, citing the 2006 Abacus Multi-Channel Annual Trend Report.

Some 25 percent of direct sales for multi-channel merchants were conducted via websites in 2005, up from 20 percent in 2004. And the amount of dollars spent and number of transactions generated via the web increased 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively, year over year. The average amount spent via the web surpassed that of catalogs for the second year in a row: $116 versus $102.