Bank Holiday shapes British consumers online spending habits

Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 08:22 by Mike Price

Analysis carried out by Venda, has revealed that the recent Bank Holiday weekend has had a marked impact on how people in the UK spend their money via safe shopping online, according to Internet Retailing.

Monday of this week saw e-commerce spending up by 17 per cent compared with the average amount for this day, while Tuesday got a 33 per cent boost.

While this may suggest that people are buying products online in greater numbers over the Bank Holiday because they have more time available to them, analysts also found that this trend was bucked on the Saturday and Sunday of the long weekend.

Spending on these two days can actually dip by up to 16 per cent, thus offloading the spending spree to Monday and what is known as Tiptop Tuesday.

A recent survey conducted by Apptus, backed up the theory that consumers are flocking to sites offering safe shopping online, at the expense of high street activity. Almost two thirds of respondents said that they were using e-commerce services more regularly today than they were a year ago.

Less than a tenth of those questioned said that they had reduced their online spend, so the general upwards trajectory of sales seems likely to continue.

Almost 90 per cent revealed that they tend to shop with a small number of sites that they have used before and thus have built a relationship of trust with, while 61 per cent said that they preferred to use e-commerce services that save their details and allow them to easily make future purchases.

There is clearly a great hunger for online shopping amongst British consumers, although it seems we use it to help us get over the end of a Bank Holiday, as much as for practical purposes.