Share of consumers who bought gifts online or in-store in the UK 2019-2022

In October 2019, 51 percent of surveyed United Kingdom consumers said they did the majority of their gift shopping online, while 41 percent did most in-store. The gap between buying gifts on the internet and in person grew significantly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, peaking in March 2021, with 63 percent online and only 28 percent in-store. This can be attributed to the pandemic-related lockdown and the government-mandated closure of most high-street stores across the country. Following the lifting of these regulations, the gap did not shrink back to pre-pandemic levels and remained quite large, at over 20 percentage points in September 2022.