Online sales are expected to hit £424m over the course of today (Monday) – dubbed Mega Monday – with shoppers spending an average of £300,000 a minute on festive bargains and Christmas gifts.
It is usually the Monday closest to December, when shoppers receive their last monthly pay packet before Christmas that the online rush kicks off, but according to shopping comparison website Kelkoo, people are stocking up early as extreme weather caused a backlog of orders last year.
A spokeswoman at Kelkoo said: ‘With £424m being spent on just one day, Monday will be a hugely significant day for online retailers. Overall, the six weeks in the run-up to Christmas will be a time for e-tailers to really boost their sales figures at the end of a challenging trading year.”
With a quarter of the UK public now doing Christmas shopping online, retailers are being urged to prepare their web-based store fronts for surges in demand, especially if they are offering attractive deals.
It is believed 33.7% of online spending will be on gifts, 24.5% on Christmas travel, 20.6% on decorations and 6.7% on food and drink.
The Kelkoo spokeswoman added: “In particular, we were interested to see that this year, shopping on mobile phones is set to increase significantly, opening up more opportunities for retailers to sell any place, any time.”
Earlier this month, IMRG Capgemini, predicted that UK shoppers will spend nearly £8bn online over the festive period – almost £1bn up on last year – with that the rise of the mobile smartphone making this year the first “m-Christmas”.
However, the figures suggest retailers will see two continuously busy weeks of Christmas shopping, rather than the two peaks, Cyber and Mega Monday, predicted in previous years.
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