A study published last week by OnBuy has looked at the different trends which are influencing consumers in the UK who love safe shopping online. Now some interesting stats have emerged, highlighting a few strange habits that are more common than expected.

Retail Gazette reports that the most popular place to spend time shopping online was on the sofa in front of the TV, as 54 per cent of respondents listed this as their top e-commerce spot.

Forty three per cent admitted to browsing the web for bargains while in bed, and a fifth said that they dabbled with digital retail tasks while at work.

Most alarming of all is the news that eight per cent of Brits carry out safe shopping online while they are on the loo. This is higher than the six per cent who make purchases when they are on holiday, or the five per cent who do so in the garden.

Researchers then went on to investigate why people shop online, with just over three quarters of consumers saying that they did so to snap up products they actually need.

For 38 per cent of people, the fact that an item has been discounted is enough to get them to buy it. Just 15 per cent said that they regularly purchased presents for friends and family online.

There are often reports on the popularity of making impulse purchases online after having a few drinks too many, but this study found that only four per cent of people actually visit e-commerce sites when they are inebriated.

In terms of the amount of time that consumers commit to carrying out online shopping sprees, 47 per cent said that half an hour is about average for them. Less than a third admitted to spending up to an hour at a time at this task.