I know it still feels like summer but it's time to start looking ahead to Christmas. Everyone agrees that this Christmas is going to be the biggest so far for online shopping.

Hitwise (www.hitwise.com) have predicted Internet shopping will increase by around 12% during the Christmas shopping period. With more and more UK shoppers using the web to buy their Christmas gifts, Hitwise said the e-retail sector is predicted to grow 25% in share of visits between July 2005 and December 2005, representing a year-on-year increase of 12% since December last year.

And IMRG (www.imrg.org) have said they think the week ending 3 December 2005 will be the peak for visits to online retailers, with over 1 in every 7 internet visits going to retail web sites
that week.

Here at Shopsafe we say: If you're going to shop online this Christmas do it early, don't leave it 'till the last minute. We should have our Christmas shopping guides and gift ideas ready for you in October.