Online retailers will welcome news that 26 per cent of this years Christmas shopping will be carried out over the internet, despite increasing fears about postal problems.
A survey, commissioned by QuickQuid.com, the shopping portal, shows that 84 per cent of people with access to the internet have shopped online this year, a figure that is set to increase in the run up to Christmas.
However, the survey of 1537 internet users also revealed the main deterrents of doing more Christmas shopping online.
As well as worries over credit card security and fraud, just fewer than 46 per cent were concerned about items being lost in the post or failing to arrive in time for Christmas.
Christmas postal deliveries could well be badly hit if union members vote to take strike action this year over overtime provision, increasing the anxieties felt by online shoppers.
Benjamin Cohen, managing director of QuickQuid.com, said: “It’s amazing how much online shopping has grown in terms of popularity over such a short period of time.
“It is clear however, that much more needs to be done to improve the delivery of items purchased online, as well as the perception of the quality of the delivery. A large proportion of online retailers do not use the Royal Mail for sending purchases to customers, instead using couriers and other services.”
The group is also urging retailers to streamline their sites in order to make navigation easier. Some 19 per cent of respondents claimed that they couldn’t find what they wanted online.
Cohen said, “This should serve as an impetus for shopping directories such as ourselves to improve the navigation of our sites to ensure that customers can quickly and easily find what they are looking for.”
