Christmas shoppers spent 50 per cent more online than last year according to the internet retailers' industry body IMRG. Hard data won't be available until mid-January, but it is believed growth will be 45 or even 50 per cent for December.

This means total spending over the 10-week run-up to Christmas would amount to £7.5bn, £500m more than IMRG was expecting. Evidence of the online shopping bonanza emerged as the high street shops slashed prices to tempt sales shoppers over the new year long weekend.