Last month an estimated 22.4 per cent of all sales made across the retail market in the UK were carried out via safe shopping online, marking a high watermark for the e-commerce industry so far in 2017.

This is according to figures released by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG, which also showed that there was a 10.7 per cent year on year increase in online sales in September.

Retail sales as a whole rose by just 1.9 per cent; modest growth but growth nevertheless. Of course a lot of this is down to the fact that safe shopping online continues to stimulate the market in spite of a slowdown in bricks and mortar activity.

Report spokesperson, Helen Dickinson, explained that these figures were a generally positive reflection of the state of the British economy at the moment, although she said that in some cases the higher spending could be put down to rising prices across many products in the wake of the Brexit vote last year.

This is also apparent when delving into the types of products which are proving to be popular at the moment. In September people were stocking up on clothing ahead of the arrival of winter, as well as investing in supplies for school children returning to the classroom.

Conversely, there was less interest in high value items, such as appliances and electronics. Furniture has also taken a slight hit as consumer caution pervades and spending is refocused only on items that are considered to be essential.

Spending habits are closely monitored and the fact that people are still using the web to buy products in record numbers is important. But the air of uncertainty which exists at the moment could mean that tougher times are just around the corner for the retail industry.