This Monday (8 December) was the biggest online shopping
day of the year, with year-on-year sales values up 14%, as
consumers flocked online to purchase Christmas
presents.
The Interactive Media In Retail
Group (IMRG) said a combination of continuing consumer
confidence in online shopping and heavy retailer promotion saw
sales of around £320m.
James Roper, CEO of IMRG, said, "Online sales are holding up
well, considering the economic conditions, with both volumes and
values significantly higher than last year.
"The ratio of researching to buying is also much greater, and
researching started earlier this year, as Christmas shoppers work
hard to track down the best deals."
He said, "Delivery companies are in sparkling Christmas form as
most had geared up for higher volumes than they are receiving so
far, so there is plenty of time left for shoppers to bag Yuletide
bargains. We may even see next Monday being bigger still, which
would be the first time ever that the third Monday in December
marked the year's peak."
Jon Prideaux, deputy chief executive of payments service
provider SecureTrading, said, "We saw are an 18% increase in the
number of transactions, whilst the value of transactions was up
around 14% across the market as a whole."
Play.com said it saw an increase of over 45% in the volume of
orders it processed on Monday 8 December, when compared to the same
Monday the previous year.