UK shoppers will collectively spend £6,435 a second on Cyber Monday, adding up to £556bn during the course of the day, new figures suggest.
The Centre for Retail Research suggests British etailers will together take more than half a billion pounds for the first time during the course of the day, which this year falls on December 1. That’s 11.4% up on the same time last year, it predicts, in research commissioned by vouchercodes.co.uk owner RetailMeNot.
The IMRG and Experian have their own predictions, suggesting that UK shoppers will spend more than £385,000 each minute on Black Friday, adding up to £555.5m. Of this, £196.6m will be spent online. At the same time, online traffic to retail sites will rise by 17% compared to the equivalent day last year, to hit 124m visits during the course of the day. On Cyber Monday (December 1), say the two, spending will hit £649.6m, equivalent to £451,000 a minute, while traffic will grow by 26% to reach 145m visits. But they also envisage a second Christmas peak, a week later, on Manic Monday (December 8), when spending will rise again to £676.5m, or £470,000 a minute, with traffic peaking at 151m visits, 26% up on the equivalent day last year.
James Miller, senior retail consultant at Experian Marketing Services, said: “Christmas 2014 is on track to be another record breaking year for online retail in the UK. Continuing a trend we identified last year, Cyber Monday will no longer be the busiest pre-Christmas online shopping day, with Manic Monday expected to take the lead. With increased confidence in the standard of delivery services and click and collect, we expect to see people break away from traditional shopping habits.”
Meanwhile, a study from consultants Accenture found that most UK consumers plan to shop on Black Friday (82%) and Cyber Monday (62%). It also found 27% of consumers plan to spend more on Christmas shopping than they did last year.
Fiona O’Hara, managing director, retail, Accenture UK & Ireland, said:. “With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast becoming fixtures on the UK retail calendar, retailers have an opportunity to capitalize on these key milestones too. With so much competition, it is more important than ever that retailers switch from a mass-marketing approach to targeted-one-to-one offers.”
eBay says neither Black Friday nor Cyber Monday will be the biggest spending days for its customers. Rather, it predicts Sunday November 30 will be its busiest shopping day in the UK ever. It’s dubbed the day ‘Super Sunday’ and expects shoppers will buy 1,800 gifts per minute from a worldwide choice of more than 800m items. It’s bracing for a peak hour of 8pm to 9pm that Sunday night.
Tanya Lawler, vice president for eBay Marketplaces in the UK, said: “This Christmas, above all, people want convenience and selection. Online and multichannel retailers are able to offer fantastic depth within their product ranges and combine this with convenient local collection services like Click & Collect – the perfect formula for today’s time-poor holiday shopper. With eBay, it’s never been easier to find the right gift from the millions of new and unique items worldwide, whilst sitting comfortably on your sofa at home.”
The Centre for Retail Research study suggests Cyber Monday spending will be highest in the tradition’s country of origin, the US, where shoppers are expected to spend more than £1.3bn, 16% more than at the same time last year.
But the tradition is also catching on in other European countries. Sales are expected to grow fastest in Spain (59.3%) and Italy (47.2%), but overall revenues will be highest in the UK (£556m), Germany (£250m) and France (£194m).
“Cyber Monday is getting bigger every year and this year looks set to be the biggest yet, with Brits predicted to spend £23.2m an hour on Monday,” said Giulio Montemagno, senior vice president of international at RetailMeNot. “With sales in the US now topping £1.3bn on Cyber Monday alone, retailers elsewhere are vying for a piece of action and looking to capitalise on the shopping frenzy with short-term promotions and eye-catching deals.
“With retailers in Britain among the first in Europe to adopt Cyber Monday, the UK is now far ahead of other European countries, with sales expected to exceed that of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands combined on December 1.”
