Shoppers dreaming of an online Christmas could end up with a nightmare as gifts ordered at the last minute fail to materialise, experts said yesterday.

Parents who wish to avoid recriminations from disappointed children should make their orders early and be prepared for a last-minute dash to the shops if packages remain trapped in warehouses or postal depots.

James Roper, the chief executive of the Interactive Media in Retail Group, an industry body for online shops, said that not all retailers had learnt lessons from last year, when about 500,000 gifts arrived after December 25.

Despite Sunday deliveries, anxious parents spent £2.5 billion in the high street on Christmas Eve in a last-ditch attempt to fill space under the tree.

“Delivery is still the Achilles’ heel of online shopping,” Mr Roper said. He said that Royal Mail, which makes half of all deliveries, had made rapid improvements, but was still “not good enough”.

But the main problem was not delivery companies, but the shops, he said. “The main reasons orders are delivered late is that either customers leave it too late, or merchants with unsophisticated retail systems sell stock they don’t have.

“Well-known companies are coming quite late to online retail with old-legacy systems built for the high street, which are useless for the internet.

“They accept the order, go off to look for the stock for two weeks, then come back and say, ‘We took your order, we took your money, but we haven’t got the goods’.

“There’s been a huge awakening in the industry, deliveries have doubled and there’s been a huge amount of investment in the last year.” In 2006, online retailers played a game of brinkmanship by attempting to outdo their rivals by promising later dates for final orders that turned out to be unrealistic.

A Nielsen/Netratings survey last month found that in response to concerns raised last year, shoppers and retailers were being more explicit about delivery options. Amazon and John Lewis are offering next-day delivery. John Lewis has also opened a second warehouse to cope with demand.

Carriers are also expanding services. DHL Express, which expects a 20 per cent increase in business, is hiring temporary staff and extra vehicles.

James Eadie, a spokesman for the Royal Mail, which delivers more than half of all online orders, said that the company had been planning Christmas services all year.

“We’re working very closely with retailers, and the whole marketplace has responded to the effect online shopping has had on deliveries,” he said. He emphasised that delivery companies had adapted, offering services such as online tracking and “safe-place” deliveries.

“There was resistance to delivering anywhere other than the billing address, but now people can have things delivered to their workplaces, homes, or even giftwrapped and sent directly to the recipient.”

He said that Royal Mail was poised to deal with 40 million more items every day. “We expect to deal with over two billion items over Christmas this year, 100 million of which will have been ordered online. We’re confident we will deliver a successful Christmas, for every item in the system by the last posting date.”

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