Twenty five per cent of people questioned in a recent DMA study said that their favourite brand in the UK’s retail market at the moment is e-commerce giant Amazon, according to Forbes.

This puts it above established high street retailers including John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, which earned top billing from 14 per cent and 10 per cent of respondents, respectively.

This may sound like the power of safe shopping online is putting people off high street brands altogether. But while Amazon may dominate the rankings, the rest of the study is predominantly made up of organisations which cut their teeth in the bricks and mortar marketplace.

The only other online-only brands to gain a mention among the 20 most popular retailers were eBay and ASOS. And analysts have pointed out that even these firms are attempting to do more to enter the world of high street retail, rather than sticking solely to the digital realm.

The report confirms that safe shopping online is not the only area of retail that matters any more, since the brands which achieve the most success tend to be those with both an e-commerce and high street presence, allowing for compelling multichannel experiences to be offered to customers.

In addition to gauging the popularity of particular brands, the study also looked at loyalty levels among consumers. Almost a third were found to make an active choice to be disloyal to retailers they have used in the past, while 40 per cent regularly shop with the same brands because of feeling the need to be faithful to them.

A quarter of respondents said that they are signed up to loyalty schemes with one or more retailers, while almost half said that they would probably join this type of initiative in the future.