As retailers complained of low numbers of shoppers in the run-up to Christmas, online sales were predicted to be taking up the slack. Ellen Connolly reports on online shopping's "biggest year so far".

Online shopping scored an unprecedented success this Christmas as Britons opted to snap up presents from the comfort of their swivel chairs.

The trend was echoed worldwide with amazon.com, one of the world's biggest online retailers, setting a single-day record of more than 2.1 million products ordered, or 24 items per second, worldwide.

Britons are predicted to have spent £3.3 billion on shopping over the Internet this Christmas, a rise of 80 per cent, according to the retail trade body IMRG.

It says that online sales rose 44 per cent in November, 12 times as fast as the bricks and mortar retail sector.

The trends were reflected in shops across the UK - retailers reporting a drop in trade as people decided to avoid the expected high street crush.

A spokeswoman at amazon.co.uk said: "It's our biggest year so far."

Some of the best sellers on the Internet were electronic goods such as digital cameras, PlayStation 2, DVD players and the Apple i-Pod digital music player.

Food shopping over the Internet gained in popularity. J Sainsbury, the supermarket, said it had noted a large increase this Christmas in people using its online shopping service – for essentials such as toilet paper as well as the heavy Christmas staples including champagne and turkey.

The retail giant also said that customers were planning ahead for the new year with an increase in sales of condoms and Alka-Seltzer.

Kelkoo.co.uk, one of Europe's biggest price comparison sites, said that sales of lingerie and clothes were up fivefold on this time last year.

Amazon.co.uk said that DVD players were the most popular electronic item for UK shoppers. Worldwide, digital cameras topped the electronics list and in amazon.com's "the home" section the iRobot Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, and James Bond's Shaver of Choice were top sellers.

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