According to a recent survey, only 25% of UK consumers are doing most of their Christmas shopping on the high street, down from 29% last year.

Online shopping growing in strength

The move online is gathering strength, as 75% of respondents reported doing most of their seasonal shopping online, up from 71% who said they shopped online last year.

Other findings include:

• Consumers are clever when it comes to price checking – 69% claim they check online and high street prices before buying, 18% do so occasionally and only 13% say they rarely price check
• This Christmas, 45% of U.K. respondents are shopping on a computer, 2% more than last year, and 30% on a smartphone or tablet, 2% less than last year.
• Christmas shoppers are twice as likely to be alerted to new products by TV and word-of-mouth than by social media. However, they are far more likely to turn to other shoppers’ online recommendations (42%) than product reviews (20%)

Brexit not affecting UK consumers’ Christmas shopping

The survey, sponsored by Qualtrics, also underlines the strength of UK consumer confidence post Brexit. 60% of respondents say they are spending the same amount on their Christmas shopping as last year and 20% say they will spend even more. Only 20% say they will spend less than they did last year. 52% intend to spend between £80 and £400 and 23% between £400 and £800.

“Upbeat Brits continue to defy concerns about our future post Brexit. They are increasingly at home online where they can look at each others’ social reviews and compare prices. Retailers are using sophisticated analysis to make online shopping a personalised, pain-free and relevant experience, commented Ian McVey, U.K. Director, Qualtrics.

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.