Consumers in the Netherlands spent more than €1bn buying goods from web shops in other European countries  2016, a 25% gain over the previous year, the national statistics office CBS said on Tuesday.

Clothing and shoes were the most popular items,the CBS said. The figures come from a joint big data project between the CBS and Amsterdam and Leiden universities

The survey revealed that more than 80% of EU purchases by Dutch consumers were made on German, British, Belgian and Italian websites with German websites accounting for 50%. Britain claimed 12% and Belgium and Italy were each worth 8% of sales.