A desperate final push was launched by stores and supermarkets today, with some resorting to hiring taxis to ensure deliveries beat the freezing weather in time for Christmas.

Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco were among stores suffering disruption to delivery services because of the weather and unexpectedly high on-line demand.

Many stores were taking on extra casual delivery staff today.

Asda in Wolverhampton was named among Britain’s 10 busiest stores for on-line orders.

General manager Jon Clements said: “We have had to use some taxis to deliver people’s shopping, it has been so busy.

“The weather hasn’t affected us too badly – it is just the huge demand we have had to deal with. Home shopping has been massively successful this year.”

Sainsbury’s said it had been forced to cancel some on-line orders. But Tanya Lawler, the supermarket’s director of on-line orders, said: “Disruption to service has affected less than one per cent of our orders in the past week.”

A Tesco spokesman said grocery deliveries had been affected in some areas, but it was working hard to make sure on-line orders got through.

Royal Mail today said it was “doing everything possible” to ensure orders arrived on time. It said 95 per cent of its operation was working normally, although goods being sent to the West Midlands from areas particularly affected by snow could arrive late.

Despite the adverse weather, on-line retailer Amazon said goods ordered before 2pm yesterday should arrive before December 25.

Temperatures last night remained below freezing, with more wintry showers forecast before milder weather and rain at the weekend.