Virtual Christmas shopping order of day but actual delivery in doubt

THOUSANDS of Christmas shoppers - unable to make it to the shops because of the winter weather - are turning to the internet to snap up their presents online.

Amazon's depot in Gourock. The retailer cut some prices to lure online shoppers. Photograph: Robert Perry

But the sudden rush to the cyber shops has sparked fears that online marketers and delivery firms, already facing peak demand, will be overwhelmed and struggle to deliver for Christmas - hampered by the continuing atrocious road conditions.

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Last week, John Lewis reported that its online sales had gone through the roof when the snow struck.

"The snow has impacted sales in shops where the weather has been particularly poor. However, there has been some compensation," said Nat Wakeley, director selling operations for John Lewis. "Johnlewis.com (is] up 62.2 per cent (on the] week to date as customers unable to travel opt to shop online."

Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel, said: "There will be significantly fewer people on the High Street, and that's going to hurt retail. Some businesses are not really going to recover.

"The thing about weather like this is that it makes people realise that we buy lots of things we just don't need, and can manage without. But how Christmas pans out depends very much on how long the snow goes on for."

Perks agreed the freezing conditions would encourage many to investigate internet shopping. "Last year, the bad weather came quite late and people were probably put off from ordering online because they thought they wouldn't get delivery in time for Christmas. But this year it has come much earlier so I think we may find more people moving that way."

According to Moneysupermarket Shopping, tomorrow is "Uber Monday" - the day predicted to be the busiest for online shopping, which will be boosted by the weather conditions. Spending is expected to hit 633 million, 18 per cent up on last week's so-called Mega Monday.

Doing the Christmas shop online may also affect what is purchased, market experts claim.

"Shopping online tends to cut down on things like impulse buying," says Steve Burt, professor of retail marketing at the Institute for Retail Studies at Stirling University.

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"We usually go online looking for something specific, like a camera. If you're shopping in town for a camera, you might walk past a shoe shop on the way, go in, and buy something. Online you don't go onto an electrical website and then say, 'oh, I wonder what offers Schuh have on, I'll just nip in there'."

But Burt also cautions that online shopping brings its own, snow-related problems. "Online retailing has been growing every Christmas for the past few years and I think this year with the weather it will definitely get a spike.

"But the interesting question is if people are sitting at home ordering Christmas presents are they going to get them delivered? The worry will switch from ‘is the customer going to get to the shop' to ‘can the goods get to the customer'? At the moment things are probably OK but there are some places where mail deliveries are just not getting through."

In the past week, the Royal Mail has had to temporarily withdraw its next day guarantee for its Special Delivery service, while 10 per cent of mail rounds on Friday were abandoned because of the weather.

Parcel delivery services such as Parcel2Go.com are also being overwhelmed due to the bad weather and some are now facing potential fuel shortages.

Royal Mail's managing director, Mark Higson, said: "We are continuing to deliver to the vast majority of addresses but, in some cases, it is not possible to do so because of the weather.

"A range of measures have been put in place to ensure deliveries reach people as quickly as possible. As we always do at this time of the year, we are advising customers to post their cards and order presents online early to help us ensure we deliver in time for Christmas."

But forget the presents, what about the turkey, the drinks, the enormous Boxing Day ham and everything else that goes into the traditional Christmas food shop? Again, with shoppers unable to make the usual trips to the supermarket, the entire retail sector could suffer.

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"At the moment it's probably too early to have a huge effect as people won't be doing their big Christmas food shop for another week or two, but, if the snow does last, then it may really take the edge off what had been looking like a good Christmas for the food retailers and turn it into a pretty poor Christmas," said Perks.

There may be some winners in what would seem at first unlikely parts of Scotland's high streets. "A lot of towns have food specialists, delicatessens and so on in the main street, and depending on how convenient they are you could easily argue that people will choose to go there rather than trekking out to a huge superstore," said Perks. "So they could actually benefit from bad weather."

But some food retailers are already reporting an upsurge their online shopping sites.

"Waitrose UK-wide have seen a significant increase in their WaitroseDeliver service," a spokeswoman for Waitrose said. "Online sales at WaitroseDeliver, Waitrose's online delivery service, have risen by an average of 21 per cent between the three Scottish branches on sales equivalent to this time last year."

It comes as small consolation for those having to compromise over Christmas celebrations, not least those Scots businesses dependent on a decent Christmas to keep them ticking over.

"We were talking about a 2 per cent lift for retailers in December year on year, but bad weather can easily put paid to that," said Perks. "For some businesses, it might just tip them over the edge."

Another factor threatening survival is the planned increase in VAT to 20 per cent in January as part of the coalition's plans to cut the budget deficit. Some stores are already slashing prices by up to 65 per cent following warnings that families are cutting back ahead of a frugal Christmas.

Analysts predict stores will be forced to offer genuine and significant discounts to end a stand-off with shoppers who are waiting closer and closer to Christmas to clinch deals.

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The big supermarkets are running half-price offers on food and drink, while many of the biggest high street names and even internet retailers such as Amazon have big reductions on selected merchandise.