Nine in ten will buy Christmas gifts online: Britain leads the world in presents bought on the Internet as we try to avoid queues in shops

It’s the time of year when we traditionally hit the shops in search of  the perfect Christmas gifts.

But this festive season, it seems most of us will be buying presents on our laptops or smartphones instead.

Britain leads the world in online Christmas shopping, a survey has found, with nearly nine in ten of us planning to buy some of our gifts on the internet this year.

Going online: The study by PayPal found many customers were buying their gifts in the internet to long queues and check-outs

And our main reason for turning to the web is a desire to avoid long queues at the check-outs. The study, by PayPal, found 88 per cent of shoppers in Britain will log on for Christmas purchases, compared with 86 per cent in the US and 84 per cent in Germany.

The UK was also ahead of Australia, Canada, France and Italy.

Forty eight per cent of Britons said they would be doing all their gift shopping online, ahead of Americans (42 per cent) and Germans (41 per cent).

The study found nearly one in three had turned to the internet mainly in order to avoid check-out queues.

The rise of web shopping has dealt a serious blow to traditional high streets, with thousands of shops now boarded up across the UK.

Some estimates suggest more than 30million people – more than half the population – will be browsing for gifts over this weekend.

Sales on ‘Cyber Monday’ are predicted to be up by 16per cent on the equivalent day last year, making it the busiest web shopping day ever.

The rise of web shopping has been faster and more extensive in the UK than any other country in the world, however it has dealt a serious blow to traditional high streets.

Damaging: The rise of web shopping has dealt a serious blow to traditional high streets, with thousands of shops now boarded up across

Thousands of shops are now boarded up, while the Government accepts that many town centres will have to be remodelled away from retail towards housing and leisure.

The PayPal study said the main reason people have shifted to using the web is to avoid check-out queues. Some 29per cent gave this as the main reason.

The convenience of being able to shop at any time of the day or night was listed by 27per cent as the deciding factor.

Around a third of people say they now shop while lying in bed, and some 46per cent said they made purchases between 7pm and 1am.

While people like the idea of shopping online while at home or on the go, some 61per cent say they then take advantage of ‘click and collect’ services to pick up their purchases direct from stores.

The managing director of PayPal UK, Cameron McLean, said: ‘Christmas is a very social time of year, yet Britons are increasingly turning to their mobile and tablet to complete their festive shopping away from the high street crowds.

‘Our retailers are leading the world in making it easy to shop from the sofa, train and bus – while giving the best of both worlds with click and collect.’

John Lewis has seen orders via smartphones and tablets more than double on a year ago, with the figure up by some 114per cent. Now,  42per cent of all its online traffic comes from these devices.

In the USA, the Christmas shopping season is normally kick-started by a tradition called Black Friday, where retailers mark down their prices to get people through the door.

Asda, which is owned by Walmart of the USA, is trying to bring the hype to the UK with its own range of deals tomorrow(fri) on a host of gift and electrical items, including mobile phones, tablets, toys and televisions.

Visa is predicting that £450million will be spent online by British consumers on Monday with 7.7million transactions through its cards alone.

Jeremy Nicholds(correct), from Visa Europe, said: ‘UK consumers’ love affair with online shopping will reach its peak on  Monday. With an average of £312,500 expected to be spent online every minute on December 2, the Christmas shopping season will certainly start with a bang.’