Mon, 22nd December 2008

£103.6m to be spent Online on Christmas Day

Christmas an estimated 5 million (5.24) shoppers will go online and spend £103.6 million, at an average of £20 (£19.77) each, says IMRG.

£84m was spent online on Christmas Day 2007 with retail sites such as eBay, Amazon, Argos, Play.com and Apple iTunes, as shoppers went online to snap up the bargains and spend their vouchers. There was a 44% increase in traffic from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day 2007 and this trend is expected to continue this Christmas as more and more shoppers turn to the internet for their shopping fix and take advantage of the Christmas Sales. The year on year growth in sales value for December 2008 is expected to be more than 15% and already we have seen strong sales performances across the online industry in the run up to Christmas.

Stuart Rowe, Chief Operation Officer, Play.com commented, "What's different about this year is the huge growth we've seen in the week before Xmas as consumers have left their shopping to the last minute. If this continues we'll see significant growth on Christmas day as people spend their Christmas money and gift vouchers."

Brian McBride, Managing Director at Amazon.co.uk, is also expecting increasing consumer interest, explaining that 'December 25th is an increasingly important day for online retail and we expect this year's to be very busy. Many people will visit Amazon.co.uk to redeem their gift vouchers or take advantage of our sale and with MP3 players set to be one of the big gifts this Christmas, we would expect many people to be visiting our new MP3 store as well.'

Robin Goad, Research Director at Hitwise UK said that "Christmas Day and Boxing Day are becoming more important for online retailers every year. Last year for the first time ever, Boxing Day was the busiest day for online retailers bar none, while online retail traffic also increased by 44% between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Given the current hunger for bargains, it seems likely that both days will be even busier this year".

Whilst Robin Terrell, Managing Director John Lewis Direct noted that: "Our aim is to make sure that John Lewis is there for our customers in ways that suit their lifestyles. As part of this goal we are for the first time ever starting our online Clearance on Christmas Eve."

Post Christmas online traffic is expected to be high and according to Julia Hutton-Potts, at eBay "We estimate that £1.7 billion will be spent on unwanted Christmas presents this year - equivalent to £36 per person, so it's no surprise we see an increase in people listing unwanted items for sale on the site in the days following Christmas.

Typically, 27th December sees the single biggest spike in consumer listings on eBay in the post-Christmas period. We estimate that on that day last year around 2m unwanted Christmas gifts were listed for sale on the site."