Online shopping sales are currently up 106% on last year, far higher than expected, new research from SecureTrading and eDigitalResearch shows, while data from Shopping.com reveals what Christmas items consumers are looking for.

Today, Monday 10 December will be the biggest UK online shopping day ever, with sales worth £370 million, almost treble the £126 million average day rate for 2007.

40% of those sales, worth £148 million, will take place outside of traditional shopping hours, either before 9am or after 6pm, up from 38% last year.

The peak online shopping hour of 2007 will be between 11-12am today, when goods worth £32.4 million will be bought, two hours earlier than the peak hour last year, on Monday 4th December 2006.  Chart 3 clearly shows how the daily traffic patterns differ this year from last, with the 2007 Christmas increase having started earlier and the growth being steeper.

Total Christmas e-retail sales (i.e. Q4 2007) are expected to reach £17.6 billion, an 82% increase of the £9.6 billion recorded for the same period in 2006.

IMRG now forecasts that full year 2007 e-retail sales will be £53.3 billion, 76% higher than the £30.2 billion recorded for 2006, and considerably exceeding the £42 billion IMRG estimated at the beginning of this year.

This new clear insight into actual online trading patterns by hour and day has become possible by combining sales data from SecureTrading, the UK’s leading independent payment services provider, which is tracking millions of transactions from 1,500 UK e-retailers, with traffic data from the leading digital technology market research firm, eDigitalResearch, using a sample of over 250 million page views per month from leading UK retailers that have its survey code installed on their web site.

Shopping.com data reveals the top items that consumers are currently shopping for, which include large flat panel TVs from Sony and Panasonic, Jean Paul Gaultier women's designer perfume, Braun Complete 360° shavers,  Lumix DMC-TZ3 cameras, Marc Jacobs perfume gift sets, Sony sat navs, Compaq dx2300 PCs, DS Lite gaming consoles, Bose Portable SoundDocks and iPod MP3 players.

Each year there is a large surge in online sales in the run-up to Christmas, but the current upswing is unprecedented, with 87% of 1,200 people surveyed by eDigitalResearch saying they will buy Christmas presents online this year, and 63% saying they would do half or more of their Christmas shopping online.

The worsening economic conditions are encouraging consumers to shop online, where they know they will find the best prices, but time saving and convenience remain the primary drivers, voted by 100% and 79% respectively.

IMRG's CEO, James Roper, commented:  "As 2007 progressed, e-retail became a perfect storm of proliferation when the confluence of four different internet shopping-related phenomena created ideal growth conditions: availability, functionality, capacity, familiarity.  With the traditional Christmas bad weather and high demand now energizing the market as well, this new combined tracking by SecureTrading and eDigitalResearch is a huge step forward for the industry because it gives us virtually a real-time view of the online shopping marketplace.  It triangulates the other data IMRG gathers and enables us to have an even more precise view of e-retail values and trends.  The message to consumers is:  With demand so high, shop early to have the best chance of goods being in stock, and successful delivery.  The message to retailers is:  Don't get caught out by this huge consumer appetite for online shopping."

Gerald Kitchen, CEO, SecureTrading, said:  "At SecureTrading, being able to monitor and track transactions from leading online retailers, provides us with a unique and un-paralleled level of insight into online shopping trends. Once again, it is fantastic news that retailers are continuing to benefit from the evolution of the internet, which gives them an additional exciting and accessible channel to market.  This year's figures really speak for themselves; we continue to observe ever-increasing consumer confidence and demand for online retail.  Christmas represents a crucial time of year for all retailers both on and off-line, but the convenience, choice and competitive nature of the internet means consumers continue to get a great deal."

Matthew Hardcastle, MD of Shopping.com, said:  "Traffic to our website has increased by 50% compared to this time last year.  As more people opt to shop online, retailers have had to change their approach and are expanding their online operations, which now includes becoming a part of the comparison space.  Over the last month alone we have secured deals with ASDA, Kodak, Epson, FragranceNet and H. Samuel.  Comparison sites make it easy to identify the best deal, and as a result, retailers are being more competitive and the benefits are being passed onto the consumer.”

eDigitalResearch.com's director, Chris Russell, said: "The evening internet shopping peak has become a standard phenomenon due to consumers' acquisition of broadband at home.  The Monday evening peak is an hour later than last year - between 9 and 10pm - and is now 87% as high as the midday peak, up from 80% last year.  In contrast to the evening peak, which this year is later, the midday peak, between 11 and 12am, began two hours earlier than last year's lunchtime slot, when the highest sales were recorded between 1 and 2pm."

Other findings from the eDigitalResearch Christmas Survey (1,243 people surveyed online between Nov-14th and Dec-5th) are:

There has been a 5% increase from 2006 in the number of surveyors saying they will purchase Christmas presents online in 2007
The fact that shopping online ‘saves time’ remains the main reason for Christmas shopping online.  There has been an increase in the feeling that shopping online is ‘more hassle free’ and ‘easier to browse’
The amount spent on Christmas gifts online has not changed significantly from 2006 to 2007
The number of sites purchased from also remains similar in 2007, with 71% of surveyors saying their habits would remain the same as 2006
63% of respondents say they would do 50% or more of their shopping online in 2007
There has been an increase in the number of surveyors that trust internet sites, with 8% citing lack of trust as a reason for not purchasing online, a 3% fall from 2006.