Rise in Brits committed to online Christmas shopping

Monday, November 12, 2012 - 11:27 by Sarah Collinson

Six per cent more UK consumers will purchase everything they need for Christmas 2012 via shopping online this year than last, according to a report from BeforeWeBuy.

This means that 1.7 million shoppers will not be spending anything on the high street, even if they do choose to get up close and personal, with items they later buy online, at bricks and mortar outlets.

This will account for about 340 million presents in total, with the average spend hitting 600 per shopper.

The publishing industry will rejoice at the news that books will be the most prolifically purchased item this year, narrowly edging out clothing and toys.

While the hardcore fans of safe shopping online make up a relatively small proportion of the retail market as a whole, it is expected that over 66 per cent of us will buy at least one item from an e-commerce site, according to the Mirror.

Last year the festive period helped to generate 8 billion in online sales, but this is expected to be closer to 10.6 billion in 2012, which is a 32 per cent year on year increase.

E-commerce breaks records almost every year when Christmas arrives, since the consumer demand for high quality retail experiences at bargain basement prices shows no sign of slowing down.

It was recently announced that the Royal Mail has opened a number of new parcel sorting depots in anticipation of the massive Christmas influx of deliveries. It will deliver 86 million packages this festive season, with millions more being handled by third party parcel companies.

There have been some delivery issues in recent years, most of which were caused by adverse weather conditions. But improved planning has meant that such obstacles can now be handled with ease.