Online payment service PayPal announced yesterday that all merchant websites using its service will be covered for their costs in cases where the buyer doesn't receive the goods purchased, and in cases where goods received are significantly different to how the merchant described them. PayPal has offered this level of buyer protection on eBay since 2005. PayPal Australia managing director Malte Feller said: "Our research shows the most frequent reasons for not shopping more online is not being adequately protected if something goes wrong. It is a concern of 33 per cent of online shoppers." PayPal also released its latest e-commerce research yesterday. The report says Australian consumers' online retail spending in the 12 months to September was A$26.8 billion, an increase of 11.8 per cent over the previous year. The big spending was on travel and groceries. While recent reports have suggested that a lot of online spending by Australian consumers goes overseas, the PayPal survey shows that spending on imports accounts for only about 20 per cent of the total and has been constant for some years.