Christmas Day will see record online sales

Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - 09:41 by Mike Price

Analysts from Experian and IMRG have predicted that December 25th will be one of the year’s busiest days for shopping online. Spending in the UK is expected to rise by over a third to hit a whopping £636 million, according to the Financial Times.

Christmas Day has become a retail frenzy in recent years because while high street stores may be closed, the automated nature of online shops means that people can make purchases while they are sitting down to their turkey dinner.

E-commerce giant, Amazon, revealed that in the past half decade it has seen a 500 per cent increase in the number of online purchases made on December 25th, while other major chains are expecting similarly significant activity on Christmas Day 2014.

The use of smartphones and tablets will help people who are celebrating Christmas with family and friends to carry out safe shopping online, even if they are nowhere near either a real world store or a desktop PC. And analysts also believe that with more people set to receive a present that is a portable gadget this year, the number of sales registered will only continue to rise.

Because smartphones and tablets also give access to digital content which can be purchased and accessed immediately, it is not even physical items that are on consumer wish lists this year. Digital distribution has made it easier for companies to sell things like videogames, ebooks, music and movies to people.

While December 25th will see over half a billion pounds pass through online stores, analysts are anticipating that Boxing Day will be an even bigger windfall for retailers.

This shows that people are still committed to socialising on Christmas Day, saving the real spending until they get a little bit more time to themselves.