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Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll has found.
Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle of Christmas shopping becomes too much.
The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov.
Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equivalent to around 7 percent of the adult population.
Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is over-crowding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the check-out are the worst thing about it.
Of the 2,065 people polled, even those who are still taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas.
Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year.
Just two percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing with store staff this festive season.
Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street, humans are “social creatures” who actually like spending time together.
“Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away,” said Mr Boxall.
The poll found that people’s favourite aspects of Christmas shopping on the high street are being able to “wander around” looking for inspiration and being able to see and touch products. People were also keen on being able to carry products home, which is not possible when they order online.
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(Agencies)
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一項民調發現，今年圣誕，超過300萬英國人將在網上采購所有過節物品，一家實體店都不會去。
每逢圣誕購物季，商店里總是擠滿了人，排起長隊，不勝其煩的人們被迫放棄去商業街購物。
根據民調機構YouGov進行的調查，今年選擇不在商業街購物的人數比去年高出近100萬。
去年圣誕，有240萬購物者沒有在實體店買過東西。今年，這一數字預計將達到340萬左右，約占英國成年人總數的7%。
超過三分之一的人稱讓人對逛商業街興趣大減的主要原因就是人群擁擠。同時，近四分之一的人認為最糟糕的就是結賬處隊伍排起長龍。
在2065名被調查者中，就連那些仍喜歡去實體店購物的人也計劃今年圣誕不會花太多時間逛商店。
約31%的購物者計劃多少也要去商業街逛一逛，不過他們只打算花不到一半時間去實體店購物，余下的時間用于網購。而去年持同樣想法的購物者比例為28%。與此同時，把一半以上的購物時間用于逛商業街的消費者比例從去年的41%降到今年的39%。
僅有2%的人表示，希望在這個圣誕季去商店購物。
卡西歐業務方案部產品營銷高級經理蓋伊?波克索爾委托YouGov進行了此次調查。他表示，盡管去商業街購物的人數量銳減，但人類畢竟是“社會動物”，還是喜歡在一起消磨時間。
波克索爾說道：“盡管商業街面臨一次圣誕大挑戰，但零售商們應將這一調查結果視為一次挑戰，借以提升消費者的店內購物體驗，而不是把調查結果看成致命打擊。要知道我們是社會性動物，渴望在一起共度時光，尤其是在圣誕節，這份渴望永遠都不會減退。”
民調發現人們喜歡去商業街購物的主要原因是，通過“逛一逛”尋求鼓舞或者親眼見見、親手摸摸產品。人們也喜歡把產品帶回家的感覺，而這種感覺是網上購物所體驗不到的。
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（中國日報網英語點津 實習生王賓雷 編輯：陳丹妮）
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