The latest survey from ParcelLab published last week found that 44 per cent of UK consumers who carry out safe shopping online on a regular basis believe that getting their orders delivered is much more of a challenge in the run-up to Christmas.

Forty nine per cent said that they come close to conducting the majority of their present-buying prior to the festive season through the internet, rather than visiting bricks and mortar stores. The fact that shipping can be delayed or suffer many other types of hiccups during this period is clearly a problem that retailers need to overcome in order to ensure continued growth.

Thirty four per cent of those questioned in the study said that the biggest downfall of Christmas deliveries was that they tended to take longer to complete than at other times of the year. On average there is a full day’s extension on the usual delivery timeframe, although some respondents claimed that they had to wait three or more days for goods to arrive above and beyond the normal.

There are other complications that consumers have to overcome aside from slow or delayed deliveries; a third said that they often found that the items they wanted to buy were out of stock on the sites they preferred. Fourteen per cent said that not enough was done to ensure they were kept in the loop in the wake of their online transactions being completed.

Part of the problem with e-commerce deliveries may be that larger retailers like Amazon are required to rely on a number of other third party firms to fulfil their shipping obligations, which can lead to complications. During peak periods of shopping, such foibles are inevitable but it is still sensible for retailers to work hard to minimise stress for shoppers.