Three quarter of consumers will shop online for Christmas

Some 76 per cent of consumers plan to buy at least half of their presents online this year, while only three per cent said they would get everything in-store, a study by Yodel has revealed.

And the survey of 3,165 people carried out between 7th and 9th September, found that nationally 29 per cent have already started their Christmas shopping.

The figure was 42 per cent in the North East and 41 per cent in Wales. But in London only 18 per cent had bought presents so far.

Overall, 18 per cent of people say they will start in October, 25 per cent in November and 23 per cent won’t get around to it until December, making September the most popular time to start searching.

Dick Stead, executive chairman of Yodel, said: “The advent of online shopping, speed of delivery and pre-Christmas promotions has changed the way we shop and we wanted to understand consumers’ shopping trends. The results are important because they give a clear idea of what to expect over the coming months as we plan for big spikes in the number of parcels that we deliver to shoppers, as well as return to retailers.”