Christmas Day e-commerce splurge of £186.4 million anticipated

Thursday, December 22, 2011 - 10:15 by Graham Miller

British consumers will continue to use safe shopping online to buy products even on the busiest gift-giving day of the year, according to a report from IMRG.

The £186.4 million which is expected to be spent on December 25th, represents a 12 per cent annual increase and shows that even with turkey and alcohol taking their toll on the senses, UK shoppers are still willing to tuck into some e-commerce for pudding.

IMRG's David Smith was quick to point out that the amount of money being spent on Christmas Day was largely due to additional purchases which would be made, as a result of gifts that had been received.

For example, youngsters who receive an iPod Touch and a gift voucher for iTunes might invest their money via safe shopping online to fill their new gadget with music.

In 2010, the year on year growth of the Christmas Day online spend was at a peak of 26 per cent so although in 2011 it is predicted to expand at a slower rate, Mr Smith said that it was still an impressive figure given that there is a tough target to top.

Some people are still carrying out last minute Christmas shopping online and search engine Google announced that close to 50 per cent of all enquiries about nabbing those final gifts made to its site came from mobile phones.

This implies that people are using their handsets to speed up the process of finding any high street stores which are still open or tracking down that must-have gift if it is sold out in the shops that they have already visited.

E-commerce, m-commerce and the high street are finally working in unison in 2011, although bricks and mortar outlets are likely to have taken a sales hit, despite this multichannel approach.