The online shopping boom

Shoppers are abandoning the high street in record numbers.

Figures released today show that 18 million Britains are set to spend a record £4billion shopping online this Christmas, while £40 billion is expected to be spent in high street stores over the same period

But the huge rise in internet shopping comes as traditional high street retailers struggle with one of the toughest Christmases for years.

Although shops are now beginning to fill up, November and early December were worryingly quiet and there are fears consumers are restricting what they spend because of rising mortgages and higher energy and council-tax bills.

"There is a big migration from the high street to online shopping this year," said Andrew McClelland of the Interactive Media Retail Group (IMRG). "People are now confident buying online, and are also comparing prices more than ever before."

McClelland claims the massive rise in sales of electronic items has also led the shift to the internet. "People are buying plasma TVs, DVD players and other big items where delivery is important, and online it's easy to check those details," he said.

The figures show that shopping now makes up 15 per cent of all internet traffic. The average online

shopper spends £220, largely on electrical items like DVD players and digital cameras.

It is believed around 90 million parcels will be shipped as a result of online Christmas shopping.

A separate set of figures shows a record number of shoppers went online to do their Christmas shopping in the first week of December.

According to monitoring g roup Hitwise, the cold weather and crowded streets led to a 24-per-cent increase in online sales in a year.

Experts believe this festive season will see internet retailers make their biggest profits ever. Spending online is expected to show an increase of 64 per cent on last year. Almost seven per cent of all retail sales in Britain are made online, Hitwise says.

However, the IMRG figures show that shoppers are are still also buying from high street names.

Of the top 20 UK websites run by bricks-and-mortar retailers, 50 per cent have boosted their traffic significantly over the past few weeks. Argos, Tesco and Comet have all increased their market share by at least 40 per cent since the beginning of October.

The high street this Christmas has seen an unprecedented number of special pre-Christmas promotions and "flash" sales from chains such as Marks & Spencer, Woolworths and Argos, as shoppers hold back until the last minute.

Most industry experts believe total sales will do no better than match last year's figures, or be slightly down.

SPSL, a company measuring the number of people in shops, forecasts a slight fall in December high street sales compared with last year.

Tim Denison, director of Knowledge Management at SPSL, said: "Everyone is aware that Christmas shopping gets progressively later each year.

"Retailers are aware that they have created this situation by being panicked year by year into bigger and bigger pre-Christmas sales. Further evidence of this is that shopper numbers for the past three weeks have been down against last year.

In the City, analysts are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for retailers.

Yesterday investment bank JP Morgan downgraded its profit forecasts for Marks & Spencer and Dixons. Retail analyst Henk Potss of Barclays Private Clients, said: "When the numbers come through in January, they will show retailers have had a very poor Christmas."

The online sales boost may, however, be rather better for the Christmas spirit among shoppers themselves.

A recent study by psychologist Dr David Lewis found high street trips more than twice as stressful as online shopping. He said: "We've found heart rate and blood pressure among some consumers similar to combat pilots and riot police."