Shoppers desert the department stores for an online Christmas shop

I’m preparing for an enjoyable and relaxing morning Christmas shopping with her Ladyship, and I’m pretty sure we’ll pop in to a couple of Leeds’ department stores. But our visit will be to pick up those last few present ideas rather than work our way through a long list. For, in our household, online shopping is the “go-to” method of ensuring we get what we need.

The tutor2u office is currently piled high with deliveries from a variety of online retailers (Amazon.co.uk probably accounting for about half of the total pile). The presents were delivered on time, at great prices. No car parking charges or stress from an evening jostling with crowds of late-night shopping. For us - and perhaps like you - online shopping has created much more time and space to enjoy Christmas.

According to retail sales data released by the ONS on Friday, it looks like one of the big losers from the migration to online shopping is the traditional department store. Despite the allure of heavy price discounting, customer numbers (measured by the retail concept of “footfall”) are well down. Sales made predominantly at low margin spell trouble when it comes to calculating the profit made in a crucial Christmas trading period.

This week sees the traditional quarterly rent payments due by retailers to landlords (Christmas Eve I think). Watch out for some high profile business failures amongst retailers who just couldn’t persuade enough of us to swap the comfort of our kitchen table, laptop and Internet connection for a 5-hour shopping marathon on the high street.