Enjoy the e-tail experience

It's safe to say that the whole Christmas e-tail experience this year went relatively smoothly (although do let us know if you found otherwise).

For Americans at least, online shopping is now an integral part of the whole holiday shopping experience.

And in Europe, most e-tailers had 40 per cent more visitors this year than last. Good stuff.

In 2000, there was a curious dip in online buying towards the end of the pre-Christmas period. According to Jupiter MMXI, the pattern this year was very different. The buying surge continued right up to the last minute.

Jupiter's figures show that shopping visits during the week running up to 25 December were up 57 per cent compared with 2000.

Either people have more faith in delivery mechanisms or more of us are leaving it all to the last minute (no subliminal marketing intended there) to grab gifts.

In 2000 it was clear that pure-play dot-coms were romping ahead of their clicks and mortar cousins, with Amazon leading the pack. But as predicted, the larger, more financially muscular high street brands packed a bigger punch this year.

This is all good news for the image of the internet as a whole. True, the overly optimistic forecasts of a couple of years ago that foresaw a time when 30 per cent of the retail market would shift online, have been replaced by more conservative estimates.

But maybe a more sensible, less hype-fuelled approach is better and in itself will add to the improving reputation of the web as a place to buy things. Users better understand the limitations of buying online and e-tailers know how to manage expectations and most importantly to deliver goods on time.

Even they can't reduce the stress caused by trying to find the right present for the right person - but at least they're not adding to it.

So all in all, anyone involved in e-tail should give themselves a pat on the back this year.

Here's to an even better Christmas next time round.