Brits spent £102m online on Christmas Day
Fewer people went shopping online this Christmas Day compared to last year, says IMRG, but they made more purchases and spent more overall.
Fewer people went shopping online this Christmas Day compared to last year, says IMRG, but they made more purchases and spent more overall.
A total of 3.8 million people bought goods online on Christmas Day 2008, spending a total of £102m.
Online shopping at Christmas was not immune from the economic downturn, concludes IMRG, eDigital Research and Secure Trading (who put together the figures), and online retailers had very mixed experiences, but in general trade was larger, later and longer than in 2007.
The total spend of £102 million on Christmas Day is up 21% from last year and works out as an average of £26.80 per shopper, compared with £19.09 per shopper last year.
“Though the number of people shopping on Christmas Day was 14% lower than in 2007, the volume of transactions was 26% higher, and the value rose by 21%, indicating that serious bargain hunting was the order of the day,” explained James Roper, IMRG’s CEO.
Traffic to retail websites during the run-up to Christmas 2008 was higher than the 2007 level, but transaction volumes rose even more sharply — up 9% in November and 28% in December, according to Secure Trading. Ticket values were down, however, indicating that more people were buying lower value items.
eDigitalResearch, meanwhile, highlights the fact that aggressive sale tactics from online retailers in the run up to Christmas saw people monitoring sites for the best deals, with traffic up from 2007 on December 22, 23 and 24.
However, traffic leapt by almost 100% between Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which was the busiest single day for online retailers in 2008.
