Online shopping activity will reach its frenzied peak on November 29 this year – or ‘Manic Monday’ as Kelkoo the online shopping comparison site has christened it. Kelkoo’s research, carried out with the help of the Centre for Retail Research, reveals that this year around £537m will be spent on the busiest online shopping day, or £22.4m an hour – a rise of nearly 30% compared to what was spent on Cyber Monday or Manic Monday in 2009.
Overall UK Christmas sales are set to reach £68.7bn, the research shows, with over a fifth (22%) being spent online. In fact online sales are forecast to rise by 29% on last year to £11.5bn, contributing massively to UK retail sales expected during this festive period.
Meanwhile the big day for high street retailers will be Saturday December 18, dubbed ‘Panic Saturday’. Kelkoo says 10m shoppers will hit the high street, looking for last minute Christmas gifts, and spending a projected £1.11 bn – the equivalent of £764,000 per minute.
Richard Stables, CEO of Kelkoo, comments: “Cyber Monday is the most important day in an e-tailer’s calendar. Online retailers can see sales rise by up to 60% in the six weeks running up to Christmas compared to the rest of the year, and at no time is this more evident than on Manic Monday, when online sales are forecast to peak at £22.4m per hour.”
The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that shoppers in the UK spent a total of £5.2bn online during October, year-on-year growth of 23%, and equivalent to £85 per person. This is the highest October growth since pre-recession levels, beating expectations and surpassing high street sales growth. Online sales so far this year have grown by 17% compared to the same period in 2009, with shoppers spending £46bn online since January.
