Half of British consumers have faced issues with parcel deliveries ahead of Black Friday and the Christmas period as more turn to online shopping, new research reveals.

A survey by Citizens Advice found that 47 per cent of adults have had problems with parcel delivery since the country first went into lockdown in March, with 51 per cent saying they feel more reliant on having goods delivered.

It also emerged more than 300 online domains have been suspended this year for issues related to the non-delivery of goods, counterfeit products and fake clone websites.

The Citizens Advice consumer service has received three times as many calls about delivery issues since March compared to the same period last year.

The charity’s online advice on parcel issues was viewed almost 208,000 times between March and October, compared to 94,000 in the same period in 2019.

Three in 10 people also said they have had a parcel arrive late, while 24 per cent said their confidence has been affected when ordering goods online.