As town centres across the country struggle to encourage festive spenders, more and more people are turning to the internet to do Christmas shopping.

With a quarter of shopping being done online is it even possible to buy all the presents your loved ones want to unwrap on Christmas morning in your high street? Joe Crossley reports…

Sittingbourne High Street is hardly a go-to shopping destination, even for those living in the town.

Like other areas of the county, it has seen numerous closures of big brands including Iceland, Wilko, M&Co, JC Rook & Sons, Argos, Burton and Store Twenty-One.

The loss of these large retailers has had a knock of effect on smaller independent shops, some of which have also had to close down.

In Sittingbourne, this includes Busy B’s carpet and flooring, Blundell’s toy shop and Money Generator phone accessories, Nickel Books and Sweet Barrow confectioners.

Online shopping has undoubtedly had an impact – this year more than a quarter of retail sales took place online, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This is more than double the proportion of sales a decade ago which was around one in 10.

Today there are 13 lots boarded up out of 114 in Sittingbourne High Street – around one in nine.

These numbers are better than the national average of high street vacancies though, which sits at around one in six according to real estate firm Savills.

Sittingbourne has a good variety of service-sector businesses, with restaurants, pubs, bakeries, nail salons, hairdressers, banks, cafes.

But while it does have a market every Friday, there are not many permanent independent stores in the High Street that sell quirky or handmade items such as Spoilt for Choice in Sheerness High Street.

The biggest drawback is that it lacks big brands that draw people from out of town to the high streets for retail shopping. For example, it does not have a department store, or names like Primark, Zara, or Next.

And while it does have Greggs, Subway, and Starbucks as well as half a dozen independent restaurants and cafes, fast food giants like McDonald’s or KFC are both over on Sittingbourne Retail Park.

This leads to another issue the high street has: it is competing with that out-of-town offering. The retail park has a Dunelm Mill, Halfords, and M&S Foodhall, the new Bourne Place leisure centre, and supermarkets for footfall.

So, with these struggles in mind is it still possible to do all your festive gift shopping in the high street?

Before I found out, I spoke to local historian Allen Whitnell to see what Christmastime in the town was like in the past.

The 71-year-old, who is chairman of the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum in The Forum shopping centre, says it used to be very busy, especially in the 1950s and ‘60s when he was growing up.

He said: “I remember there being a greater variety of stores than there are today which enabled people to do all their shopping in the high street.

“There were grocers, fishmongers, and toy shops all of which are no longer here.

“The decline came first with out-of-town shopping centres and then the rise of internet shopping all of which dragged customers away.

“I always avoided the mad Christmas Eve dash but did all my shopping in person until Amazon delivery came around. The only problem with that is my wife now asks me to do more of her shopping.”

My list included chocolates, biscuits and a bottle of rose wine for my grandma, a beanie hat and some vegetable seeds for my dad, a panettone for my aunt and uncle and two books for my grandad.

My sister and her boyfriend asked for stainless steel cooking utensils for their new home.

I also needed to buy my mum a panettone – my sister had already bought a joint gift for both my parents.

To start off with, I parked up for free for half an hour in Central Avenue, a short walk to the heart of the high street.

Unfortunately, there was not much festive atmosphere, being a Thursday afternoon. The lights, which are the centre’s only decorations, were not on and Sittingbourne does not have a Christmas market like nearby Rochester and Canterbury.

But, during another, weekend visit to The Forum, the entrance to which is in between O2 and Vodafone shops in the high street, there was a Father Christmas with elves saying hello to children and the Salvation Army was outside playing Christmas music.

Empire, a men’s clothing shop, was the first store on my hit list. My dad had not specified what colour or design he wanted for a hat, with the only instructions being he wanted one that would cover his ears when he was gardening.

I was the only one there which I find always makes things a little bit awkward as I feel like I cannot just browse and visit other stores before coming back.

Nevertheless, a Lyle and Scott turquoise hat caught my eye and I paid the handsome price of £20.

I went down the hill to visit The Pet Shop, which celebrated its 30th birthday this year, for my dad’s seeds. I got him three packets for £7.63.

Card Factory was next up to buy some wrapping paper – that set me back £3.99 – and then into WHSmith to see if I could find the books my grandad wanted.

These were The Fatal Englishman by Sebastian Faulks and Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway, but neither of these were on the shelves.

For almost everything else I needed to go to a supermarket. There are less than a handful of grocery stores in the high street, all of which are international stores and specialising in fresh produce and snacks which offer something different from the big names.

It wasn’t looking promising for my panettone, so I veered off piste a little and went to the nearby M&S Foodhall for this instead, as well as a nice bottle of rose and a barrel of biscuits.

Now at the retail park, I managed to buy everything I needed in one fell swoop, spending £38.65 in the supermarket and £21.45 on the household items at Dunelm.

I had been able to get this all done within an hour and a half, although I would have to order my grandad’s books from Amazon which set me back £21.25.

Altogether I spent £112.97 on Christmas presents but only £31.62 was in the high street itself.

However, in recent years all but the books would have been possible. Iceland would have been a supermarket option, while I would have gone to Wilko to find my sister’s present.

I might have bought the wine and panettone from P&R Italian when it was open in the former Rooks shop – which is currently boarded up.

I compared all the goods I bought, minus those from the supermarket, with the same or similar products on Amazon Prime and found it was £17.23 more expensive to shop in-store – £74.29 compared with £91.52.

Factor in the £8.99 monthly Prime membership fee, which enables shoppers to benefit from free delivery on many products, and the virtual shopping world still wins out – just.

It was also much more time-efficient to find what I needed online than visiting each store in person, and there were more value-for-money choices.

For example, I could have bought a nine-piece stainless steel set that was £7 cheaper or spent a few extra quid to buy my dad six packets of seeds rather than three.

So despite my efforts to keep it local, not only could I not do it but it would have meant I had more money in my wallet had I shopped online, as I have to admit I usually do.

It’s difficult to blame people who have turned away from the high street.

Of course, there is much greater satisfaction about putting your money behind the till of a local shop, or even one of the big stores, that employ local people, knowing that you are supporting the community. And that has to be worth the greater expense.

You also get that face-to-face interaction with staff for help, advice and even just a friendly chat – something you cannot get on an app, unless we count AI chatbots.

There is something to say about seeing the product you are buying to get a feel for the quality and size or fit of it.

Also if you are online shopping you cannot make a day of it. There are plenty of nice restaurants and cafes to visit for a post-shop meal in Sittingbourne – browsing from your armchair doesn’t allow you a chance to grab a sausage roll from the historic bakery A E Barrow & Sons, for instance.

And while the number of closed-up lots may currently be a stumbling block for shoppers, it could present an opportunity for retailers to fill in the gaps of what the high street lacks.

It will be interesting to see if this is the case with the former Wilko building that is, at the time of writing, under offer from a mystery bidder – could it be we’re finally getting a Primark?

But part of the reason for the lots being empty is because people do not use the high street like they did pre-internet or the out-of-town shopping outlets.

I hear people often complain there is nothing for them there, with the most common grumble being they are filled with charity shops, nail bars and barbers.

But of course that is because you can’t get those services online – you have to make a trip out to get a trim after all.

I’m glad I was able to shop local and put some money in the tills in the high street. But I’m afraid to say the overall experience of high street shopping wasn’t enough to change my habits, for now at least.

Though, confronted with all the gifts I need to get ready for the big day, I could be swayed by a free in-store wrapping service.