Retail analyst Mintel found that catalogue shopping plummeted from 53% to 25% of the home shopping market, as online sales overtook it, rising from 9% to 32%, according to a new report.
Mintel found that one in three adults in the UK last year had bought products via the internet in the previous 12 months, up from just 9% in 2000.
The research group says that home shopping retailers should admit that the days of the "big book" are over and that focus of the home shopping industry should be on the internet.
Part of the problem according to Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel, is that catalogue retailers have failed to adapt.
"Mail order has failed to change or diversify sufficiently to appeal to today's more demanding and sophisticated home shopping audience and Mintel believes that the situation is largely the same across Europe," he said.
Perks added that part of the trouble with the mail order industry is that it tends to see the internet as a threat instead of an opportunity.
"The internet is still seen by many as an exciting, new and convenient way to home shop, while catalogues are often seen as old fashioned and downmarket," he said.
The UK has one of the biggest home shopping markets in Europe after Germany, with sales of 拢6.63bn. Last year, 67% of UK adults had done some form of home shopping, up from the 58% in 2002/3.
Internet retailers such as Amazon and QVC are said to be reaping the advantages of the rapidly developing online business, with leading mail order groups Otto, Karstadt Quelle and Redcats putting their efforts into developing specialist catalogues.
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