The seemingly never-ending heat wave that has had the UK in its grip for weeks is causing an uptick in safe shopping online, specifically because of the disruption to sleep that the high temperatures are causing amongst consumers.

A study from Acceleration Partners published last week found that there has been a 26 per cent rise in the number of people visiting e-commerce sites during the hours of darkness, with analysts suggesting that this is because people are shopping from their smartphones because they cannot get to sleep.

Overall there has been a 17 per cent rise in sales made via safe shopping online over the course of the heat wave so far, which should mean that record revenues are generated by retailers this month.

Major outlets were questioned as part of the report, with 85 per cent saying that the volume of orders they were receiving at the moment was definitely higher than expected for this time of year. Furthermore almost half said that they had seen a surprising rise in the amount that shoppers were splashing out in a typical transaction.

Smartphone-based shopping habits are common amongst millions of people in the UK today, but as sleep patterns are being disrupted by hot and sticky conditions, retailers are clearly reaping the unintended consequences.

Of course studies have also shown that using a smartphone late at night can be a contributing factor to a poor quality of sleep, which is why it is recommended that people steer clear of lighting up the screen of their portable devices when they are in bed, or on their way to bed.

This study demonstrates the power of m-commerce and shows that smartphones and tablets could well overtake desktops in terms of e-commerce spending in the near future.