Apparently £183million is going to be spent online this Christmas .
This figure is decidedly the most in a single day, as well as being 40% higher than 2005's high of £131m. Online shopping was at its previous highest on December 12 2005. Yet millions of shoppers had long waits for gifts to arrive.
Amazon guarantees Christmas delivery for any orders submitted by December 18, with Littlewoods guaranteeing orders by December 21.
The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) predicts that shoppers are going to buy earlier in 2006 in order to avoid disappointment. Thus the online shopping frenzy is going to begin a week earlier.
Mondays are the days when most orders are placed, after a weekend of discussion as to what needs to be ordered. Most people do their online shopping from their office computers, even though nearly 50% of households having broadband internet at home.
Many millions of us have now received our last paycheque prior to Christmas and have worked out our festive budget . Online shopping is at its highest lunchtime between 1 pm and 2pm, with another rush is at between 7pm and 9pm.
It is likely that more than a quarter of gifts are going to be bought online. Therefore, this Christmas could be the worst one for high street retailers in the last 25 years, with shops already recording low sales in the last seven weeks.
