Tesco's festive sales growth was below expectations but its online performance improved by 24 per cent, according to today's figures.

Total like-for-like sales for the quarter increased by 3.1 per cent, against forecasts of between 3.8 and 4.5 per cent.

But the group's online divisions, Tesco Direct and tesco.com, made sales of more than £190m during the Christmas season, fuelled by strong demand for MP3 players, digital cameras and laptops, says the retailer.

Web sales represented around two million orders delivered by the supermarket chain.