Will's Web Watch: Ecommerce's Christmas cracker

Ever since the three wise men carried gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh miles across the Middle East people have been looking for more convenient ways to do their Christmas shopping.

Two thousand years later and the internet would appear to have answered all our pleas.

The internet could even have helped the wandering Magi - if they were around today and ordered in time for the last delivery date. Check out Scents of the Earth for all your Frankincense and Myrrh needs, and you could easily furnish the Son of God with a nice bit of gold from Elizabeth Duke.

But blasphemy aside the web pretty much has Christmas covered nowadays. Here are some of the sites which I've used this festive season (look away now family) and which I would recommend to anybody looking for a little last minute inspiration.

Firebox.com:
This is a wonderful site which very much falls into the 'Something for him' category. Perhaps a dad, brother, son or uncle... there are very few men alive who couldn't find something on this site that they would want under the Christmas tree.

Current top selling item on the site is the Pocket DV3 Camcorder - which is a truly awesome piece of kit that would brighten up any Christmas.

Judging by its best selling status the pocket DV3 is clearly headed down a lot of chimneys, but also selling like the proverbial hot cakes are a whole raft of 'boys toys' from remote controlled cars and planes to shot glass chess sets, foam disc rifles and Jedi training lightsabres - all designed to prove that us men never really grown up.

My own experience of using Firebox has always been outstanding - from the responsive customer service teams to the prompt delivery of orders... and they even throw in a big bag of sweets with every order. Buy by Friday 19 December

See also: iwantoneofthose.com

Virgin Wines. A lot of people seem to have adopted the idea that Christmas is a time for peace on earth and good will to all men... when in fact it's a time for getting sloshed.

And lest we forget that important Christmas message, Virgin Wines is at hand to deliver box loads of bubbly direct to your front door. The site enables you to build your own boxes of wine or will make recommendations based on popularity or your own previous purchases and preferences. There's also normally a whole barrel-load of special offers available to encourage you to add crate after crate of booze to your trolley, using the easily navigated site. So why not take advantage - you never know who might pop over unannounced and it beats carrying it back from the off licence or supermarket.

The only downside is that Virgin Wines does have a habit of sending out a lot of marketing email. Of course you can select not to receive these - but there are worse pieces of 'spam' to receive than those offering money off your next crate of wine. Buy by Friday 19 December

See also: Lastorders.com

CD-Wow OK, so this may be the one that got away - unless you're quick - because you'd have to buy by today, 17 December to guarantee delivery... but it's certainly one to remember. Chart CDs are largely all available for £6.99, which is £6.99 more expensive than Kazaa, but a burned blank CD doesn't make for a great present, and it's a lot cheaper than anywhere else.

So how can they sell CDs this cheaply? CD-Wow gains a great - some say unfair - competitive advantage from being based in Hong Kong and buying its stock more cheaply than UK-based rivals.

According to CD-Wow it is now the second most popular CD e-tailer. Second of course to the ever popular Amazon who should also be enjoying a bumper Christmas this year.

A spokeswoman for Amazon.co.uk said: "We expect this to be our biggest Christmas ever."

On this day last year Amazon.co.uk shipped 200,000 items - a figure it expects to exceed this year, buoyed in a large part by its free delivery on orders exceeding £25. At the forefront of the sales drive this year are consumer electronics such as MP3 players, DVD players and digital cameras, according to Amazon's spokeswoman.

See also: Play.com

silicon.com has this year been conducting in-depth research in conjunction with Empirix into the performance of top e-tail websites during the Christmas sales bonanza. Once everybody has taken their final orders we will be publishing the results of this research, so stay tuned.