The third of December will be the busiest online shopping day pre-Christmas, with UK consumers forecast to spend 375 million hours shopping online in December 2012, according to new research.
Experian has revealed online retail predictions for this year’s festive season, indicating that Christmas 2012 will be the biggest and busiest ever for online retailers in the UK.
Visits to UK retail websites are expected to exceed 100 million on Monday 3rd December – known as the UK’s “Cyber Monday” – an increase of 36 percent from 2011.
• UK “Cyber Monday” will be the first shopping day in the UK with more than a 100 million online visits:
o Experian predicts that on 3rd December 2012, the UK will make 115 million visits to retail websites; an uplift of 36 per cent from 2011
o On “Cyber Monday”, the UK will spend 15 million hours shopping online
o UK consumers will spend 375 million hours shopping online in December 2012, 32 million more hours than were spent in 2011 – an increase of nine percent year on year
o “Sales creep” will also start earlier in the UK this year with Experian predicting a lift in sales searches from 15th December onwards
• How does this compare to 2011 overall?
o 2011 was a record breaker in terms of online retail – the UK made 2.18 billion visits to retail websites and spent 343 million hours shopping online
o 2011’s “Cyber Monday” (5th December) saw the UK make 84.6 million visits to online retail sites – Amazon and eBay were responsible for 28 per cent of all retail visits on this day
o 2011’s biggest shopping day fell on Boxing Day, with an astonishing 96.2 million visits to retail sites, up 19.5 per cent year-on-year
• How does the leap year impact shopping in December?
o Due to the leap year, “Cyber Monday” falls earlier in December this year, so Experian also expects the second (10th) and third (17th) Mondays of December to perform significantly ahead of last year
o The leap year will also have a significant impact on Christmas Eve – a day that’s usually one of the worst performing for online retail. This year Christmas Eve should be much bigger for online retailers due to its Monday occurrence. Mondays are usually peak shopping days throughout the year and this will be no exception
o As Christmas Eve is a working day, Experian predicts this will be a popular day for Click & Collect as shoppers pick up their last minute gifts
“Christmas 2012 is on track to be another record-breaker for online retail, outstripping 2011 on all fronts,” commented James Murray, Digital Insight Manager at Experian Marketing Services. “The current market trends suggest that in the UK, Monday 3rd December will be the biggest pre-Christmas day for online retail, with an estimated 115 million visits to online retail outlets and a massive 15 million hours spent online shopping on this day alone. This will be the peak of pre-Christmas shopping in the UK so marketers need to make sure their campaigns are in place to maximise traffic on Cyber Monday: it’s not too late to promote special offers through email and social media. Understanding what people are interested in, the best channels to engage customers through and when to reach them will be crucial to success this Christmas.”
The UK’s “Cyber Monday” falls one week after the US’s “Mega Monday” – which this year is on 26th November 2012, after the Thanksgiving weekend.
Methodology:
Based on UK internet data from an Experian Hitwise sample which monitors a quarter of the UK online population. The predictions are based on forecasts from internet growth over the last 12 months and historic visits data over the last two years.
Source: http://www.experianplc.com.