Revealed: How modern Brits do their Christmas shopping

19% of the UK purchase all of their Christmas gifts online, according to a new study from Videology.

The ‘Profile of a Christmas Shopper’ report reveals that 81% of respondents plan to buy at least one Christmas gift online, with one third saying that they will buy the majority of their gifts on the web.

However, 19% also said that they would be sticking to the high street and doing all of their Christmas purchasing completely offline.

Crucially, for retailers, online shoppers have been revealed to be bigger spenders – with those who do all of their Christmas shopping online 8% more likely to cough up more.

36% of online shoppers also said that they use a PC/laptop the most to research Christmas purchases, followed by ‘do not research’ (26%), smart devices, such as mobiles and tablets (25%) and connected TVs (13%).

In terms of purchasing influence, the highest percentage of respondents (35%) said that friends and family influence their purchasing decisions the most, followed by ‘other’ (18%) and TV ads (15%). Just 5% said they were influenced by magazine/newspaper ads and 4% by celebrity endorsements.

Perhaps surprisingly, almost 30% of respondents said that they do their Christmas shopping more than two months in advance. 19% said that they leave it to the week before.

Shoppers that plan on spending more on Christmas gifts this year compared to last are 6% more likely to wait three weeks or less to Christmas to make their first purchase.

“For brands, Christmas can be the make-or-break season, especially in the current economic climate,” said Catherine Hallam, director of product – data strategy & analytics, Videology. “So with customers primed and ready to shop online, advertisers and publishers alike need to embrace the popularity of e-commerce.”