Amazon provides breakdown of Christmas Day shopping habits

Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 21:31 by Graham Miller

This year more money was spent online over the course of December the 25th than during any previous Christmas Day in Amazon’s two decades of e-commerce dominance. And last week, the firm published some interesting statistics about exactly how British consumers indulge their love of shopping in between the celebrations.

Thanks to the in depth data that is recorded about online shopping activities, Amazon was able to pinpoint the precise minute during which the most people were using its site to browse and buy goods on Christmas Day 2014. This peak was hit at 8.52pm, partly as a result of people sitting on the sofa and looking for a distraction, but also because this is the point at which some shoppers were already getting ready to take advantage of Boxing Day sales going live.

Amazon spokesperson, Jay Marine, said that some people were even making last-minute gift purchases on December 25th, albeit of digital products and gift cards which can be given to people almost instantaneously, rather than having to wait for a delivery of a physical product.

10am was the point of the day at which Amazon gift card sales peaked, suggesting that plenty of people in the UK were happy to give the gift of safe shopping online to friends and family members, while avoiding the pain of having to pick out anything specific.

At around lunchtime, the site sees a surge in people redeeming gift cards, with analysts reporting that this is, in part, due to the fact that plenty of Brits will have unwrapped a new smartphone or tablet which they can then use to make payments.

There is a 3pm lull each year, while at 7pm people start to get busy buying DVDs and Blu-Rays based on the Christmas specials which are on TV at the time.