And while the "bricks and mortar" backed e-tailers, such as Dymocks online are expecting traditional Christmas shopping patterns to be repeated online, pure e-tailers and auction sites are beginning to notice the emergence of new buying patterns.
Jane Morrison, marketing director at Ebay says the auction site gets a boost over the Christmas period as people go treasure hunting for their hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives.
"Because it is an auction site we never really know what will appear from one day to the next, it could be a Ferrari, or a possum-fir hat," Morrison said.
In the lead up to Christmas Ebay has included a themed Christmas page which sorts items according to their applicability to age group, gender and interests. However, Morrison expects the real rust to come after the Christmas period.
"After Christmas is the perfect time to pick up a bargain because people log on to sell the things they got for Christmas that they don't like," Morrison said.
Far from the scramble for sales, and hectic Christmas traffic online shoppers this year can expect a fairly low key online shopping day countdown. Overall this year's high tech shake out has provided the remaining players with increased market share - which is leading to increased sales.
Peter Crowe, senior commerce producer at Yahoo! Australia & NZ, told ZDNet Australia that although he was expecting some new shoppers, this years marketing would be focussed entirely web based.
"We'll see many customers make their first online purchase this Christmas," Crowe said. "But the focus will be on frequent online users who are already transacting."
Yahoo is planning to capture these Web savvy consumers with random limited-time-only specials, and a notification program based on Christmas specials.
Although most e-tailers are finding themselves on firmer ground, Christmas remains an important stimulus for sales. For none so more than E-Store, who recently signed a deed of company arrangement locking it into monthly repayments of its debt burden.
Nonetheless company administrator, Ian Purchase, is playing down the importance of Christmas for the overall success of the company.
"While we expect sales to increase over the Christmas period, the company certainly doesn't depend on Christmas to survive," Purchase said. "The overall business model is sound and we will increase profit throughout the year, especially as E-store is now one of the survivors."
