Strong Usage of online by Supermarket Chains in Christmas time

According to web traffic measuring in the UK, top 45 supermarket-operated websites accounted for 6.6% of visits to shopping and classifieds websites.

One of the main drivers of supermarkets growth online has been the increasing proportion of non-food items they are selling. Nine of the top 10 product searches were for electricals or entertainment products, with "nintendo ds" the most popular term. Other popular terms included "music downloads", "laptops" and "lcd tv".

Supermarkets' wine sites were also proving successful, with Tesco's Wine Warehouse the most popular site in the online wine retail sector at more than 25% of the market.

Sainsbury's wine site has a more than 6% share, while Waitrose Wine Direct has nearly 4%.

The internet has become the preferred method of shopping for the over-50s, according to a survey by marketing agency Millennium. Some 28% of respondents said they preferred to do their shopping online.