Three quarters of UK consumers will buy at least half their Christmas presents online
More than three quarters (76%) of UK consumers say they that they will buy at least half of their presents online this year, according to a new report from Yodel. The Yodel survey, which was carried out on 7-9 September with 3,165 participants, also revealed that nearly a third (29%) of UK consumers have already started to buy their Christmas presents.
“Those in the North East (42%) are likely to be the most prepared, followed by the Welsh (41%) with Londoners falling behind the pack with just 18% already having bought presents to put under the tree,” added Yodel.
“Overall, 18% of people say they will start in October, 25% in November and 23% won’t get around to it until December, making September the most popular time to start searching.”
Dick Stead, executive chairman of Yodel, commented: “The advent of online shopping, speed of delivery and pre-Christmas promotions has changed the way we shop and we wanted to understand consumers’ shopping trends. The results are important because they give a clear idea of what to expect over the coming months as we plan for big spikes in the number of parcels that we deliver to shoppers, as well as return to retailers.”
Yodel said that its preparations are well underway for the 2015 peak period, adding that it has “spent the first half of this year optimising its network to cope with such uplifts in demand, including several new, strategically placed, ‘super’ service centres, with more planned to open by the end of the year”.
