If the prospect of braving the shops before Christmas leaves you in a cold sweat, Iain Hepburn can show you where to let your browser do the walking...

In the jungle
Still the daddy of e-tailing, and with good reason. Gone are the days when Amazon was just a book shop on the web. Now it's sending out everything from iPods to patio furniature, and TV sets to toys. It may not be the cheapest of online shops, but its without doubt one of the most efficient, most reliable and most useable. If you're uberlazy you can get a good 75% of your shopping via Amazon, have them deliver it to your door... hell they even giftwrap it.
www.amazon.co.uk

The Price is Right
But there are other places - and with so many etailers, it's a nightmare to know just where to start, and where to get the best deal, which is where online price aggregators come in. Pricerunner's a useful place to start - user friendly, wide ranging and efficient, it'll tell you the best sites for whatever product you're wanting to purchase, and even alert you to any special deals going down on the web. Vital if you're on a budget or just an inveterate bargain hunter.
www.pricerunner.co.uk

Bargain hunt
Of course, it may be something rare you're looking for, and the rest of the web can't help you... so try an online auction. Just about anything you can think of, and a disturbing amount that you can't, is being sold off here, so there may well be that essential Albanian Top Trumps you want to track down for your little brother. Also handy if you need a couple of quid, and want to flog off stuff before St Nick arrives... or get shot of those unwanted pressies post December 25.
www.ebay.co.uk

Super store
The ultimate in laziness, of course, would be to have all of Christmas delivered to your door. So why bother trailing around your supermarket when you can have everything dropped off by a van and save you trollying around Tescos hunting that last set of mince pies. If you fancy being the Margo Ledbetter of the 21st century, this is where to start.
www.tesco.com

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