Shoppers buy at home to avoid cold weather

Online Christmas shoppers spent £1 million in a single minute for the first time today.

The seven-figure barrier was broken just before 1pm on the most frenzied online shopping day of the year.

The precise high-water mark was 12.58pm, when 128 transactions per second were processed by retailers. In last year's busiest minute, on December 7, £732,000 was spent.

The most popular gifts being snapped up by internet shoppers are the Mini Micro T-bar Scooter, the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus game, Lego's Winter Toy Workshop and the Apple iPod Touch, according to analysis by online fraud prevention company Retail Decisions.

The company's chief executive Carl Clump said about one per cent of the £6.93 billion spent over the internet this month will be by fraudsters.

The country's top online fraud hotspots are Kilburn, Barking, Woolwich, Plaistow and Hatfield. The volume of buying over the internet has been boosted this year by the extreme cold and snow, which has kept many buyers from venturing onto high streets.

Selfridges said its online sales soared 50 per cent last week, while John Lewis said sales through its website were up 62.2 per cent.

The first week in December is thought to see the peak in online buying, because it comes after November pay cheques have been paid in but before the "zone of uncertainty" when consumers grow increasingly nervous about whether their gifts will arrive in time for Christmas.

Monday lunchtime is particularly popular, because it is the first chance many people have to buy after making their purchasing decisions over the weekend.