EVERYONE knows that Christmas is the most stressful time of the year, when it comes to shopping, so many of us find it far easier and simple to do it online, here the most stressful part of the whole experience is merely making a tea or coffee.

Statistics have shown that online shopping is on the rise, and with Christmas just round the corner, who could blame us?

According to RetailResearch.org in 2016 there will be an expected 14.9% growth in UK online sales, this is based on the data received from the 2015 growth of 16.2%.

People tend to choose to do their Christmas shopping over the internet due to the ease of access and avoid the stress off the high streets.

Statistics from We Are Social reveal the not so shocking data that 92% of the UK population are internet users. Of this percentage, 77% of them have admitted to purchasing items online. The largest majority of these items being clothes, followed by books and home electronics. However, some have been victim to false advertisement such as the virally infamous lace dress:

Though online shopping is an all-round better choice for the consumer for narrowing their search for very specific products, mistakes like this are too common an occurrence with more illegitimate online stores selling poorly made products. Groups such as BridesBeware have been naming and shaming such sites.

For now, we are all best sticking with what we know with the more popular sites for our Christmas gifts, the most popular being Amazon and Ebay. These two online retailers are battling it out for Christmas supremacy, Amazon seem to be on the rise especially having had a new store pop up here in Manchester. This bringing a little more water into the city with the amount of jobs available at this warehouse.

But what does this mean for the little guys? Well smaller, family owned stores will be getting less business due to the rise in online sales. Sure, the Christmas market is a great push for these little companies to get out there and sell their products. But it’s very hard to compete with the likes of these two online conglomerates.

Not only are the markets helping out the smaller companies, but the experience is very much the epitome of Christmas itself and the online stores almost take away from that. There is little need for people to leave the confines of their homes now that they can even order their Christmas dinner from their phones.

Christmas traditions are ever changing now with the advancements in technology which is not arguably a bad thing as only a few years ago we would be getting fruit in out stockings for Christmas!

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