Boxing Day set a new British record for online shopping, figures showed last Thursday as crowds descended on high streets once again for another day of frenzied sales.
While thousands of shoppers queued outside stores up and down the country to get ahead of the game, millions more made the most of tumbling prices from the comfort of their own homes. Britons spent 14 million hours trawling websites, paying around 113 million visits to online retailers on what became the UK’s biggest day for internet shopping, analysts said. Web sales rose 17 per cent on Boxing Day last year, market data firm Experian said.
Figures were slightly lower than the 126 million online visits predicted for Boxing Day, something experts attributed to a ‘sales creep’ which saw retailers begin to slash prices before Christmas.
Experian digital insight managerJames Murray said: “Boxing Day set a new British record for online shopping with 113 million visits going to retail websites in a single day.
“But with a number of the major retailers bringing their sales forward to Christmas Eve, the impact was that Boxing Day was slightly muted and not as prolific as we forecast.”
Figures show that Christmas Eve was 86 per cent bigger than last year as a shopping day, and Christmas Day was 71 per cent bigger. While Boxing Day fell short of expectations, online shopping is still set to be about 30 per cent up on last year.
The figures emerged as stores threw open their doors last Thursday morning, offering further discounts and sparking scenes of mayhem on shop floors. It was another busy day in London’s bustling West End where footfall hit record levels yesterday – up 31.3 per cent on Boxing Day last year.
Similar scenes played out across the rest of the UK as retailers offered hefty discounts in a bid to lure shoppers and compete with online rivals.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the dash for discounts was boosted by consumers who were feeling the pinch.
BRC spokesman Richard Dodd said: “Customers are under lots of financial pressure and are really keen on seeking out value and taking advantage of bargains.
“Today will be another big day when some retailers will launch their sales and that will help to continue the momentum.”