Christmas shopping can turn even the most ardent yule lover into a “bah humbug” grinch. Not only is it difficult to find presents that please everyone, but you have to buy them, braving streets crowded with desperate shoppers.

Heading online is the answer. UK surfers are predicted to spend £13.6 billion in the run-up to Christmas, a 40% rise on last year, says Forrester Research, the web analysts.

You’ll also find advice on what to buy loved ones (and what you shouldn’t risk), plus items that you won’t come across on the high street – from personalised gifts to exotic presents from foreign shores.

CRUCIAL ADVICE

If you lack inspiration, tell eBay’s interactive present picker (tinyurl.com/yc2l3p) what your loved one is like and potential gifts are wheeled into view. It suggests a fairly arty but extravagant and sophisticated 25 to 36-year-old lover might like an elegant teacup, shoes or a gold watch.

Wives and girlfriends can be notoriously difficult to please, and www.pressies4princesses.co.uk provides a guide. According to the site, some of the top 10 mistakes men make are buying the same thing as last year (boring) and getting household gifts (only Nigella swoons over saucepans).

Children are no easier to deal with. An average of £378 is spent on each of them at Christmas, according to www.responsesource.com, but 84% of the little blighters are disappointed. The Toy Retailers Association’s annual top 12 predictions (www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk) suggest it will be the year of, among other things, the crash resistant, remote-control Flytech Dragonfly (www.flytechonline.com, £30).

BUYING IT

Once you know what you want, get it online for convenience and price. Tap the item into a price comparison site such as www.pricerunner.co.uk and you will be presented with a list of the cheapest places to buy it online. Another boon is the www.vouchercodes.com site. It lists promotional codes that give money off at sites such as Amazon, Argos, Dell, Comet, Tesco, HMV and Vodafone. You head to Amazon, say, to buy a book, and when you are making your purchase, you enter the code and a set amount is deducted from your bill.

Some of the best savings online are with high-tech goods. Pixmania.co.uk sells a Fuji FinePix S5700 camera for £104.20 (typically £180) while www.dabs.com has an Acer EX4220 notebook at £280 (typically £315).

Notonthehighstreet.com doesn’t claim everything it stocks is unique, but where else will you find a driftwood Christmas tree (£65), a calfskin laptop bag (£138) or a funky football dimmer switch (£25)? Cybercandy.co.uk is an international sweetie shop while the mega-stocked www.thedrinkshop.com has seasonal hits such as Christmas mead at £7.89.

YOUR RIGHTS

When shopping online you have the same rights as in the real world. Goods must be fit for purpose and not mis-advertised. You have seven working days to return an item, and once ordered, it must arrive within 30 days (unless otherwise stated). For a summary of your online rights see www.tradingstandards.gov.uk.

When buying online, it is safest to use a credit card. If something goes wrong the credit card company is liable with the retailer. This applies to all products costing between £100 and £30,000 even if bought abroad.

Many people are worried about handing over card details online, but Apacs, the UK payment association, claims it’s rare for people to hack into secure sites, meaning your details should be safe with reputable firms.

GET PERSONAL

Online personalised presents have never been easier to buy. For £5 you can snap up the likes of Jane Austen’s Emma, Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and design your own cover at www.penguin.co.uk.

Better still, let your child write a book and have it published and bound (www.letterbox.co.uk). A 12-page, wire-bound book costs £11.

Send an image to www.customisedphonecovers.com and it will print a design to attach to anything, be it mobile phone cover (£5), chocolate wrapper (£2), or bicycle (£5). If you like bespoke art, then www.customportraits.co.uk makes pop art-style drawings of photographs and prints them on canvas, from £110. Gettingpersonal.co.uk sells football history books for £44.95, which tell a team’s history in newspaper cuttings. You can include the recipient’s name embossed on the front.

NOT IN A STORE NEAR YOU

Things you once had to leave the country for are now in easy reach online, like the ultimate present for dads, the Holeproof Explorer. These hard-wearing Australian socks cost £5.75 (adults) and £3.98 (kids) from www.littlebruiser.com.au. A Simson bike repair kit (£6.97 from www.typicaldutchstuff.com) is a perfect stocking filler for a cyclist.

Buying from within the European Union incurs no import duty or Vat (assuming local Vat has been paid). But outside the EU the government slaps duty on goods worth more than £18, and levies Vat on gifts worth more than £36. Once this threshold is passed Vat applies to the sum total of the goods, insurance and freight. A list of the most common duty rates is at www.hmrc.gov.uk.

Check a site’s returns policy before ordering, as shipping costs can be high. It can be difficult to deal with faulty or nondelivered goods, but www.econsumer.gov has information on what you can do.