U.K. Retailer Woes Laid Bare as Web Prompts Fashion Foray

As more British retailers succumb to competition from the Internet, a venture capital firm is underscoring the shift with its first investment in a fashion seller to develop its online business.

Scottish Equity Partners put 12 million pounds ($19.3 million) into Matches, which stocks labels including Alexander McQueen and Gucci, said Calum Paterson, managing partner at the Glasgow-based investment firm. U.K. shopping online reached a record 830 million pounds a week last month, the Office for National Statistics said in its December retail sales report today. That was 16 percent higher than a year earlier.