Internet shopping signalled its growing domination of Britain’s consumer habits yesterday as millions began their annual sales hunt from their armchairs.

More than 3.5 million shoppers – 770,000 more than attended Anglican church services – racked up total online sales of around £53 million in what was retailers’ busiest Christmas Day ever.

The maturing online market-place even prompted high street retailers, who year-on-year are losing a greater share of pre-Christmas sales to internet ventures, to join the festive fray.

Dozens of the country’s largest chains sidestepped the legal ban preventing their outlets opening on Christmas Day by offering reductions of up to 70 per cent on products for sale on their own websites.

The total sales online were expected to represent a two-thirds increase on Christmas Day sales last year.

The move towards online shopping comes despite the widely publicised problems with the Royal Mail in the run-up to Christmas. It was criticised after it emerged that more than two million parcels and letters sent for Christmas were lost or delayed.

According to figures from the Internet Media Retail Group, sales by companies that operate online were on course to finish December at £7.4 billion, up 106 per cent on the same month in 2006.

Sales through web stores, including high street retailers’ websites, over the past three months are expected to have topped £17.5 billion – a jump of more than 80 per cent from last year.

Retailers said that the festive shopping spree began at the start of Christmas. Marks & Spencer said that it had been particularly busy during the first hour of its sale from midnight to 1am. The Comet electrical outlet said that it was expecting more than 200,000 visitors to its online store yesterday. Joining the frenzy were an estimated 8,500 fraudsters who used stolen credit card details to buy goods, such as electronic items and jewellery, that can be easily converted into cash. Criminals traditionally regard Christmas as an opportunity for fraud because retailers tend to let their guard down.

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