I suppose the snow has helped in some cases, although the high street was hit and delivery for grocers was a problem.

Grocers shut up shop and struggled with deliveries over the Xmas period. Panic mode hit (pretty sad really) with Asda said saying sales of 25kg bags of grit were up by 32%, sales of cat litter is up by 55% and sales of George thermal underwear was up by 1,000%.

According to retail week Tesco said soup sales over the last 24 hours were up 80% on two weeks ago, and ready meals sales were up 40% on the same period.

Online retail was also affected with Amazon suspended express and next day deliveries during “Snowmania”.

So, once the snow has cleared, what can we learn about people’s online shopping habits?

NMA recently released the results of an online shopping survey which shows how people intend to spend more time shopping online this year. Cat Litter excluded.

Below are some extracts from the NMA piece.

” Conducted by Lightspeed Research, it revealed cost-conscious users intend to shop more online this year, dealing a further blow to the beleaguered high street.

The survey of 1,957 people found 36% plan to do more shopping online and less on the high street this year. This figure rose to 45% of 18-24-year-olds and 44% of the big-spending 25-34-year-old market.

With recession looming, online consumers are more price conscious and intend to use the internet to hunt for savings — 34% plan to use price-comparison sites more, while 22% will increase their use of value supermarket and auction sites.

The research is supported by Nielsen figures which reveal a 64% year-on-year increase in unique visits to the site of value supermarket Aldi. ”

NMA also goes on to explain areas where online could improve and how pure play sites like HMV and Play.com have benefited over the Xmas period.

Full details of the NMA synopsis and report can be found here.

It’s a good read!