Europe gears up for an electronic Christmas

NEWS Santa's elves are facing the grim prospect of redundancy this Christmas as an increasing number of European shoppers turn to the web for their presents, according to a new survey. Online spending this Christmas is up 71 per cent across Europe, beating a 68 per cent increase for the year as a whole, despite the economic downturn and fears of a full-blown recession in the new year. Brits are using the web to stock up on Christmas pudding and Brussels sprouts, as groceries top the list of e-tail categories, with an E199m (£124m) disbursed on digital delicacies. Vulgar socks and tasteless ties seem to be selling well on the net too, as Brits order E59m (£36.6m) of clothing and accessories on line. Books and music are more popular choices, though, with E76m (£47m) and E62m (£38.5m) pumping through the virtual cash registers as UK.com gets festive. The hot gift across Europe seems to be Personal Computers, though, with our continental cousins buying a staggering E410m (£255m) on little bundles of desktop delight - Almost as much as they spent on food. The increase in Christmas spending tops off a good year for ecommerce. Despite a large number of high-profile company failures, the internet is increasingly becoming a normal part of European shopping habits, according to the survey from Jupiter MMXI.