Shoppers may avoid the High Street in the coming months but they may still spend big from home. At least that’s what eBay hopes. While laying off 10% of its 16,000 workers in preparation for the economic tsunami, in October it paid €708m in cash and options for web payment company Bill Me Later.

While the auction side of its business has fallen, eBay has been focusing on the profitable online payments part. Revenue from PayPal, which eBay acquired in 2002, is up 35%, as large companies, such as Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart, offer it as a payment option on their websites.

Bill Me Later, an eight-year-old firm based in Timonium, Maryland, takes a different approach to online payments. It allows people to buy items online and then sends them a bill within 30 days, at which point they can either pay or take out a loan. Amazon, eBay’s rival in online shopping, invested in Bill Me Later in 2007 and integrated the service into its site. It is unclear whether that relationship will continue; Amazon declined to comment on the deal.

Finally, efforts to spur more Europeans to shop online and across national boundaries were stepped up in October, with a proposed law for consumer rights across the EU. While an estimated 150 million Europeans use the net to shop, just one in five buys outside of their home country, according to the European Commission.