Visits to UK ecommerce websites surged shortly before the VAT rate went back to 17.5 per cent on January 1st, according to Experian Hitwise.
Total visits increased by 13 per cent between the weeks ending December 27th and January 2nd, up from the two per cent rise seen in the same period during the previous Christmas.
House and garden retailers benefited the most from this traffic, receiving a 67 per cent rise in traffic last week.
The sport and fitness, computers, and appliances and electronics categories also saw big increases in visits, revealing a trend for shoppers to concentrate on saving money on high value products.
Web searches relating to the VAT change additionally soared by 54 per cent last week, with almost 47 per cent of users clicking on results linked to government websites.
News and media sites accounted for 13.3 per cent of clickthroughs, although a relatively low proportion of users ended up on ecommerce sites after searching for terms related to VAT.
"Consumers have clearly been looking to take advantage of the final few days of 15 per cent VAT," says Robin Goad, research director for Experian Hitwise.
While the official VAT rate increased to 17.5 per cent last week after almost a year at the lower rate of 15 per cent, some retailers are phasing in the increase rather than imposing an immediate rise in prices to avoid deterring shoppers.
