This Christmas, UK retailers need to make sure their websites and apps are up to speed, or risk missing out on their share of the potential £6.85 billion online spend, according to a new study commissioned by Rackspace® Hosting.

The research shows that almost four in ten (38 per cent) online shoppers abandon websites or apps that take more than 10 seconds to load, and close to half of them (45 per cent) then turn to the competition to make their purchases.

Mobile is the hot topic right now in eCommerce and eBay shopping is no different, with eBay reporting that mobile accounts for more than 10% of all purchases on eBay UK.

Whilst it's true that certain demographics account for a large part of mobile sales, such as under 25's and "mobile mums" (68% of US mums use their smartphone while shopping for checking reviews, prices, etc.), we continue to see an upward trend in mobile device usage on eBay.

Thanks to rapid device adoption, shoppers are changing how they research, search, communicate and shop online. The lure of offers and incentives and the transparency of reviews and feedback mean mobile traffic is on the rise.

Some people like to delve deep into the HandClicked analytics reports, crunch the numbers and research the trends, etc. and for others they just want to quickly understand how their business is performing.

If you fall into the latter category then focusing on simplicity and transparency is the quickest way to achieve results. And the simplest way to get these results is through patterns.

It is widely accepted that fast-loading pages improve the user experience and eBay work very hard on ensuring their pages load as fast as possible.

Just recently eBay rolled out an eBay Motors upgrade which rendered pages twice as fast as the old implementation.

Speed as perceived by the end user is driven by multiple factors, including how fast results are returned and how long it takes a browser to display the content.

If a page is taking too long to load, a user (and potential buyer) will typically abandon the operation, look elsewhere and search less.

There is nothing wrong in trying to cut costs when posting eBay items.

One top tip is to keep padded envelopes or boxes that you may come across. You can reuse these to send items of your own, not only saving you the cost of buying a new padded envelope or box but also helping to save the environment.

Communication starts from the moment you begin to create your eBay listing. It's important that your descriptions are incredibly clear, because you're trying to give people a feel for an item without them actually being able to get their hands on it before they make a purchase.

In economics, BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development, or alternatively as the "Big Four".

We're often led to believe that eCommerce is booming in India, but is it?

Sarah Willingham from This Morning's "Save with Sarah" segment had some common-sense advice for selling on eBay.

As more consumers use their smartphones for everything from price comparison to shopping, sales through mobile now account for more than 10% of all purchases on eBay UK.

But how often do you check your product searches and listings on a mobile device? Here's one problem with the eBay mobile application which may be losing you sales.