“It’s just another Manic Monday!”
Speakers buried in warehouse corners throughout the UK will be blurting out The Bangles’ 1986 hit Manic Monday today, as staff wade their way through parcels and packages galore, writes Chris Dolan. Fortunately, 1980s music is not making a comeback, but Monday 7 December symbolises how far we have come over the past decade.
It will be Manic, it is a Monday, and yes, you’ve guessed it, it is the busiest online shopping day of the year.
Online sales, boosting the e-commerce market, and therefore providing a bounty of revenue for the postal and express industries, are expected to top £350m today.
The peak of traffic across the online shopping portals is expected to take place between 1pm and 2pm, as customers hover over their computers with a BLT sandwich in one hand, credit card in the other.
Analysts are predicting that all records will be smashed as shoppers frantically buy gifts via their mayonnaise-strewn keyboards. £320m was spent on the busiest day last year.
Research carried out recently for the IMRG e-Customer Service Index by e-DigitalResearch; found that 93% of shoppers were planning to shop online for Christmas presents this year.
David Smith, director of operations said: “IMRG members are gearing themselves for a very busy Christmas and along with the £350m spent online on Monday 7 December, for the month as a whole we expect sales to reach £5bn which will be an increase of 14% year on year. Online retail has consistently delivered double digit growth throughout 2009 as consumers switch to the convenience and price savings available on the internet.”
At Amazon, one of the original online shopping portals, managing director Brian McBride said: “Last year, on Cyber Monday, we saw a record 1.4m items ordered in 24 hours. In 2009, more people than ever will be ordering Christmas presents via the internet. Low prices and vast choice coupled with the ability to order from the home or office makes internet shopping a cost effective and highly convenient way to purchase Christmas gifts and here at Amazon, we expect this to be our biggest Christmas to date.”
Whilst Stuart Rowe, COO of Play.com, said: “We are predicting that Monday 7 December is going to be our biggest sales day yet in the run up to Christmas Day. Christmas shopping has really kicked in now despite the economic climate, with shoppers buying lots of toys and clothing as well as loads of other gifts from us ahead of Christmas Day.”
It seems that customers are also turning to the Internet to find ideas for presents, as well as buying them. “Online Christmas shopping started much earlier this year with consumers more focused than ever in researching and finding inspiration for their Christmas purchases, Christmas gift and related shopping terms like ‘Christmas gift ideas’ were up 26% year on year (in November). While searches for non material Christmas presents also rose this year, for example, the popularity of the term ‘spa breaks’ is over 30% higher than in November 2008”, Retail Google UK’s Peter Fitzgerald said.
IMRG said that it expects Christmas shopping to finish even later than last year as large retailers will be taking orders for Christmas delivery until the 23 December.
Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director, said his company “is prepared for its biggest online Christmas ever and has a range of initiatives, including evening and Sunday deliveries, to help people get their items as quickly as possible – even if they are not at home when we first try to deliver”.
Higson went on to say: “We expect to deliver 155m items ordered online in the run up to Christmas and the majority are delivered first time, but our measures will help people who are not home to receive a package in cases where it is too big to go through the letterbox or requires a signature.”
I’m sure Higson breathed a huge sigh of relief as the Royal Mail strikes were put to bed for this calendar year. One could only imagine the negative effect a national strike would now have upon the UK’s national postal operator – the damage could have been irreversible.
Thankfully I will not have to contend with those doubts as I join the masses at lunchtime for some hectic retail therapy. There’s only one question – what to get her?
