72.9% of shoppers believe buying online to be more environmentally friendly than making a trip to the shops.
The figure is a 25% increase on 2009-10, according to e-retail association IMRG. However, while around 64% of shoppers said they would prioritise a carbon-friendly delivery solution, nearly three quarters would not be prepared to pay a premium of more than £10 a year for it.

Online retailer sales are currently growing around 10 times faster than conventional retail sales and are predicted to reach one fifth of total retail sales in the UK by 2012.

IMRG has reported findings by Heriot-Watt Univerity, which found that carbon dioxide emissions from a van delivery are significantly less than making a special trip to the shops to buy the same item. As a result, the firm believes customers are choosing to replace high-volume travel to the shops with consolidated van deliveries to the home.

Director of the Logistics Research Centre at the Heriot-Watt University, Professor Alan McKinnon said: "Our research suggests that ordering goods online and having them delivered to the home can be much more carbon efficient than travelling to the shops by car or bus to buy them. Internet retailing appears, over all, to offer a significant environmental advantage, though rather than rest on their green laurels, e-tailers and their carriers could be doing more to decarbonise the distribution of online orders."