This year will be a record-breaking Christmas online, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group, the online retailers’ association. It expects internet sales in Britain to top £7 billion, compared with £5.5 billion in 2005. Some 25m people now shop online, and last Christmas the internet giant, Amazon.co.uk, sold 10m items. On a single day (December 12), it dispatched more than 256 tons of goods, while a Royal Mail delivery van picked up from one of its three UK depots every 15 minutes.
This year, for the first time, John Lewis expects online sales to exceed those of its flagship store in Oxford Street, London. In the year to January 2006, its turnover online was more than £100m; by next January, it is expected to be 70% higher. Its busiest day online will be December 11, and its busiest hour between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.
For John Lewis shoppers, the 11th — a Monday — will be the pivotal point between still being able to survive the oncoming rush and disaster. “This has been the pattern over the past four or five years,” it says. “We think our customers go into the shops over the weekend, or browse at home, and then go into work and start shopping in their lunch hour. It’s Panic Monday.”
Online Christmas shopping still accounts for only a tiny fraction of the £74.4 billion overall bill, but it has, nevertheless, brought about a retail revolution. “It’s growing very fast, at a rate of 35% a year,” says Nick Gladding, senior retail analyst at Verdict Research. “That compares with 2.6% for retail overall, so it’s the one area retailers can see they can expand their business.”
For consumers, this translates into better shops and wider choice. Why settle for one type of Christmas tree at your local greengrocer when you can choose online between artificial, coloured, pre-lit, or half a tree (for those very short of space), or a Fraser, noble or Nordmann fir (with or without roots) and get it collected for recycling in January? There are still some problems, however. Ordering may be done by computer, but the physical goods have to reach your home somehow. Two Christmases ago there were tales of woe from about 500,000 people let down by the online Santa.
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But lessons have been learned. The Royal Mail, which delivers about six of every 10 online orders, has made improvements. For 50p you can have a package delivered to a local post office and collect it when it suits, while an increasing number of businesses now let employees have packages delivered to their workplace. Good websites also advise on stock levels.
As a result, about 180m items are expected to be ordered online this Christmas. Even so, don’t expect miracles: the Royal Mail’s last posting dates for UK-based online shops are the same as for the public: December 16 (second class), December 19 (first class), December 21 (special delivery) and December 22 (for guaranteed next-day delivery). Miss those dates at your peril.
Needle-free tree delivery
Once upon a time, in a town far, far away, if you wanted to buy a Christmas tree it involved a trek to the local garden centre, where, after examining every specimen on offer, you would end up buying the first tree you’d seen, only to spend the next 20 minutes trying to tie it to the roof of the car.
This year, you can leave all that ritual pain behind. Choose your tree online instead, and have it delivered to your door.
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The best place to start looking for the perfect conifer is the British Christmas Tree Growers Association’s website, at www.bctga.co.uk. This resource lists more than 150 suppliers, from Inverness to Cornwall, where you can get to know your Nordmann fir from your lodgepole pine, and find your nearest supplier to keep down delivery costs. The site also has a handy guide on how to care for your tree so that it doesn’t wilt before Twelfth Night.
One of the largest suppliers of Christmas trees, www.onlinechristmastrees.co.uk, is based in Lancashire and can deliver to most parts of the UK. Prices for trees start at £29, including delivery, rising to £44.50.
If you are feeling completely idle, www.pinesandneedles.com will not only deliver your tree the next day but, if you live within the M25, will install it, decorate it and even pick it up when you’re done with it. Prices start at £19.95 for a 3ft table-top tree and go up to £135.95 for a 13ft Nordmann fir. Delivery costs are not included. The company also has a good range of stands and blocks, so no more wonky branches.
A tree is not just for Christmas. Those who long for a truly sustainable tree can order a Christmas Tree for Life pack containing a Norway spruce sapling from www.tree2mydoor.com. It costs £34.95.
If you’re not that green, and if the prospect of spending yet another festive season vacuuming up fallen needles fills you with dread, why not opt for a fake tree? For added sparkle with no mess, try the 5ft gold tree with gold glitter tips from www.marksandspencer.com, priced at £25. The online store also has a 6ft crystal-tipped model for sale at £65. Bling it on.
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More artificial trees are available from www.christmastreeland.co.uk, which sells a wild, pink fibreoptic version for £17.65.
Don’t restrict your choice of seasonal greenery to the tree — deck your halls with armfuls of holly and ivy from the same supplier. Drape branches and leaves across a mantelpiece to give a natural decorative touch to living rooms, or arrange some in vases (www.lsainternational.co.uk) to add winter colour. A little extra-special Christmas cheer is always welcome, so invest in a bunch of mistletoe — www.tenbury-mistletoe.co.uk sells it by the box, from £5 to £ 20.
To give a formal floral welcome to your Christmas guests, go for a wreath: www.festive-dresser.co.uk has more than 80 Christmas wreaths on offer, from traditional berry designs and winter roses to crystals and ivy. Prices start at about £25.