Poll: 32% didn't do any Xmas shopping online

31.12.2010
A of 3,094 site visitors has found that, despite this year's appalling weather and the increasingly widespread access to high-speed web connections, online Christmas shopping remains a clear second choice to the joy of visiting the shops in person.

The largest set of voters in our poll - 31.8 percent - reported that they didn't plan to do any Christmas shopping online at all.

Atmosphere was one advantage of high-street shopping that people cited.

"There's no Christmas atmosphere without the Christmassy sights and smells of roasting chestnuts, mistletoe, tangerines, nuts, barefoot street urchins and Xboxes as you stroll through the mall..." insisted forum member .

Our agreed. "I go to Notting Hill, and wander up and down Portobello Road, lots of interesting shops, lots of places to get good coffee and snacks, and bags of atmosphere. I can drive there in 45 minutes, and I come back with presents for my wife - she's done all the rest. It puts me in the right frame of mind for Christmas Day, and I look forward to it enormously."

Some readers were sceptical about the reliability or punctuality of web firms' delivery partners.

"I had a brief conversation with our regular postie this morning," said . "He suggested a visit to the local sorting office - apparently it's floor to ceiling backlog of internet purchases for Christmas. Whether they can be delivered in time is a real headache."

And the remainder weren't overwhelmed by the advantages of e-commerce either. Asked 'How much of your Christmas shopping are you doing online this year?', about a quarter of voters (26 percent) went for the answer 'Just the odd item that's hard to find in the shops'.

One in five (19.8 percent) said the split between shops and online would be about half and half.

"Living in the country I search the internet for all Christmas presents and purchase around half of them online," wrote . "For presents that need to be looked at in more detail, I will venture out to the shops and have a closer look at them, especially if they are what I call expensive."

Which left 15.3 percent of voters plumping for the answer 'Mostly online' and the smallest group of all - 7 percent - who answered 'I bought - or will buy - the lot online'.

"As last year, everything ordered online from , and mid-November... all delivered by end of November," reported . "No worries about parking or fighting through hysterical people and it saves hours."