Too late for last-minute shopping on the Internet

IT COULD already be too late to shop for Christmas presents via the Internet, some of the largest retail websites warned consumers yesterday.

The boom in electronic shopping means that, in many cases, stocks are simply too low.

The toy retailer, Toys `R' Us, said orders must be made by the end of tomorrow for pre-Christmas delivery, while Jungle.com, which sells computer hardware and software, CDs and videos, warns that it is too late to buy some items.

"The last couple of weeks have been ballistic," said Steve Bennett, the managing director of Jungle.com. "We have been seeing 2,500 orders each day, worth an average of pounds 62 each. But we have had to put up a warning telling people that if it's a product like a computer peripheral, which may have a three-day delivery time, then we wouldn't recommend buying it as a Christmas present."

Other e-retailing sites report similar booms in business - but post a similar proviso. Empire Direct, launched a month ago to sell household goods such as televisions, CD players and washing machines cheaply over the Internet, said it is receiving 1,800 orders per week. It promises it will deliver before Christmas for items ordered on 22 December but only if they are in stock - which the buyer will not discover until after paying for them.

The two biggest sellers of books and music, Bol.com and Amazon.co.uk, reported huge increases in business: at Bol.com, the number of purchases in the past month has doubled those made in October, and their value has increased by almost 15 per cent. (The most popular book is Gary Rhodes' cookbook New British Classics, and the best-selling CD is Blur's 13.)

While books are easier to deliver than washing machines, both sites warned that their last dates for ordering and definite delivery before Christmas is the beginning of next week.

A survey released yesterday warned that buying online may lead people to pay more than the shop price while receiving an inferior service - although the best sites offer savings that can be considerable on larger orders, with delivery times as short as 36 hours.

The flaws were usually simple: over-complication. "Too many of the cyber traders we examined put technical bells and whistles ahead of ease of use and end-user functionality," said Mike Hawkey, the marketing director of Dial Internet, a web design and Internet marketing consultancy, which commissioned the study. "Customer service, the all-important ingredient to deliver loyalty and repeat business, was very sadly lacking in some quarters."

Price competitiveness was also variable. Of 20 top websites surveyed some, such as CDzone, toycity.com, eToys.co.uk and Jungle.com, had higher prices than shops for some goods before postage and packing charges.

However Mr Bennett of Jungle.com said that the survey had examined the price of a VHS video and "we actually sell very few videos. The high street chains get massive discounts by ordering in bulk. But we beat them on the price of computer goods or CDs".

Four of the 20 sites failed to reply to e-mails. "One of the biggest crimes of an Internet retailer is to fail to respond to a simple e-mail," Mr Hawkey said. "This will only put customers off."

t The huge response to the website www.waterfordcrystal.com - registered by an 11-year-old boy - suggests that the company Waterford Crystal could sell pounds 2m worth of goodsover the Internet if it had its own website, say analysts.