Earlier this year, as Britain was in the midst of the recession, we noted a trend where more people were economising by staying at home. Whether it was entertaining friends, having a quiet drink or watching a movie, more people found staying at home a way to save money and still keep up with their social lives. What is interesting is that this very trend seems to be contagious as more people are looking for shopping bargains in the comfort of their living rooms. And although the recession lingers in the background it seems that the dominant reason people are doing so is because of the weather.

According to the latest report by the Interactive Media Retail Group, they anticipated that around 5 million people would go online to shop for Christmas bargains on the 25th of December. They estimated total spending online for that day alone to be in the region of £153m a significant increase on last years Christmas day online sales. If that is not enough evidence Visa Europe reported that they anticipated around 1m transactions to be executed on Christmas day alone. On the whole, Internet sales continue to increase as sales in the fourth quarter increased by around 22.5% in October and November.

Many of Britain's biggest retailers have jumped on board and encourage this trend as they start their sales online on Christmas day. Department stores such as John Lewis have reported an extremely successful Christmas period with sales through their website up as much as 45% in early December. All in all it seems that shopping online is here to stay and is not just for Christmas.