Retailers were already expecting this Golden Quarter to be a bumper one for online, but the second national lockdown, which will see non-essential shops forced to close, has sent that into overdrive.

Store closures throughout November, including over Black Friday – which has emerged as the true peak of Christmas in recent years – mean the bulk of spending will now take place online.

This creates huge headaches for retailers. Even before lockdown was revealed this weekend, fears were high that the UK’s delivery network would be unable to cope with the avalanche of online sales.

As The Entertainer’s chief executive Gary Grant told The Guardian: “If everybody spins to the internet, which is what happened during the first lockdown, the internet itself won’t fall over but the ability of people to pick, pack and then deliver cartons is going to be challenging.”