This might be the first genuine e-Christmas for online traders, but various reports are surfacing that some online traders are not servicing customers well.
The charity Christmas card business is now valued at £120m a year. It started in 1947, according to UNICEF, when a seven-year-old Czech girl's thank-you card to UNICEF was reproduced as a greetings card and sold to supporters.
Will this be the first genuine e-Christmas in the UK? Will shoppers really take to the Net in a big way? If so, which are the charities that are ready and waiting for them? A quick glance at the charity Christmas catalogues suggest that some are more ready than others.
National newspapers have traditionally run Christmas charity appeals. Despite having had award-winning Web sites for up to three or four years, very few of them have featured their Christmas appeals on their Web sites.
Are they integrating their Web sites more effectively this year?
Charity Christmas card consortium Cards for Good Causes launches its Web site later today. Cards from the 25 member charities plus other guest charities are available for secure online purchase, and are divided into three categories, humorous, traditional, and religious.
Last month UK Fundraising welcomed the latest charity Christmas card-selling Web site last month. Unfortunately Charitycards.co.uk used a great deal of Flash technology which, while impressive, was not fast or user-friendly, both key qualities of a successful e-commerce site.
For the fourth year running Parcelforce Worldwide has helped underprivileged children in eastern Europe by collecting parcels for an international children's charity. "Operation Christmas Child," a special project run by the Samaritan's Purse International Charity, has delivered Christmas treats to needy children in 12 impoverished and war-torn eastern European countries.
