Shopping on the internet has been increasing every year over the last five years, a new survey predicts another busy year for internet shopping in the UK. According to the results of an online survey of 3,012 shoppers by PriceGrabber.com, this Christmas shopping season promises to be the busiest yet for internet shopping.

We thought you may be interested to see what fellow internet shoppers are up to and why, or just enjoy the amusement value!

Key findings

- The average shopper will spend GBP 768 on their Christmas goodies, of which 50% will be purchased online (hmm...sounds rather high!)

- 93% of respondents expect to do more online shopping this year than last year, citing a growing dislike of stressful high street Christmas shopping and soaring petrol prices as two of the main reasons behind this move.

- Comfort and satisfaction with the online experience has also increased dramatically and 88% stated they would spend substantial time researching products and prices online before making offline purchases.

- Over 50% of those surveyed will have started their Christmas shopping by November 1st, with 40.1% having already started by early October. But despite this "pre-planning" mentality, 75% of respondents expect that they will still be buying gifts as late as five days before Christmas.

The top 3 reasons shoppers are most likely to buy their Christmas gifts online:

1. Convenience - eliminate hassle of driving/parking/crowds (36%)
2. Flexibility - shop 24 hours of the day (33%)
3. Finding low prices (19%)

The top 3 things shoppers dislike about shopping for gifts on the high street:

1. Waiting in lines (30%)
2. Finding the right selection of gifts for everyone (28%)
3. Lack of time to get it all done (20%)

Additional finding
- 46% answered yes when asked if they would do more Christmas gift shopping online specifically because of high petrol prices

- 42% of respondents say they will shop for gifts online while at work. 45.2% of men surveyed admitted that they will shop online while at work, while only 34.7% of women will count on shopping online while at work as an option

- About the same percentage of respondents answered that they will buy Christmas gifts online this year for pets (17%) as they will for co-workers (18%)

Survey Methodology

This Christmas shopping survey was conducted by PriceGrabber.com in October 2005. The survey ran from October 12-19 October 2005. It was administered online among a random sample of individuals. The total sample size was 3,012 respondents, 1,045 females and 1967 males. The confidence interval for all results is 95% with a margin of error of approximately +/-3 percentage points for the entire sample. LONDON - BUSINESS WIRE Nov. 2, 2005

Article by Iggy Quazi director of Ecommerce business Mouse2House based in Essex, England stocking a wide range of digital imaging devices. For more information visit http://www.mouse2house.co.uk for the latest digital media products. For fax toner and ink cartridges see http://www.mouse2house.co.uk/index.php?CatURN=37.