Ninety five per cent of people who are going to use safe shopping online to order products in preparation for Christmas this year will be turning to click & collect services to get the job done, according to a new report published by Postcode Anywhere.

Econsultancy reports that the survey found a dramatic leap in click & collect usage compared to last Christmas, when just under half of consumers said that they would be harnessing this option at the checkout.

One of the advantages that is helping to propagate click & collect throughout the UK is that shoppers do not have to sit around at home waiting for a delivery, but instead, can head to their local bricks and mortar store to pick up their order on their own terms.

Consumers are also a fan of the fact that click & collect tends to help them avoid delivery charges, since retailers are usually happy to deliver items to local stores for collection. And, indeed, four out of five people questioned in the study said that the free nature of the service is something they now expect.

Respondents were asked to rate some of the UK’s top retailers on the quality of their click & collect capabilities, with Argos achieving the best score. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the style of retail that Argos has offered for many years, showing that others could learn from its current system.

Consumers can now place orders via safe shopping online with web-only retailers, like Amazon, and still get click & collect benefits, at least in some parts of the country. Collection from local corner shops or from dedicated lockers in shopping centres is becoming more common, but retailers with a dedicated network of bricks and mortar stores still have the advantage in this area.