Cyber Monday set a new online retail record this week, as UK consumers made 112 million visits to retail websites on Monday 3rd December, a 32% rise on 2011.
The study, from Experian, found that Amazon, eBay and Argos claimed 30 per cent of all retail visits, and consumers spent 8 minutes and 12 seconds per online retail visit on Monday.
Two mobile websites were also among the fastest movers. eBay UK Mobile (ranked 16th most popular retailer overall) and Argos Mobile (ranked 40th) were the third and sixth fastest moving websites respectively on Cyber Monday, showing the UK’s increased appetite to shop on mobile devices.
UK consumers also set new records for the amount of time spent shopping online in a single day, spending 15 hours on retail sites.
The biggest recipients of traffic on Cyber Monday were eBay, Amazon and Argos. These three destinations accounted for 30 per cent of all visits to the retail category on the day and 62 per cent of all retail visits went to the top 100 websites in the industry*, showing the strength of the biggest online shopping brands.
Analysis of the fast moving websites with the largest increases in market share of visits this year compared to Cyber Monday 2011, revealed that Amazon’s combined properties (.com and .co.uk) experienced the largest increase overall, accounting for 12.18 per cent of all retail visits on Cyber Monday 2012, up from 10.85 per cent last year.
Two mobile websites were also among the fastest movers. eBay UK Mobile (ranked 16th most popular retailer overall) and Argos Mobile (ranked 40th) were the third and sixth fastest moving websites respectively on Cyber Monday, showing the UK’s increased appetite to shop on mobile devices. NotOnTheHighStreet.com managed to double its market share of visits from last year, indicating a desire for more unusual gifts this Christmas beyond the standard socks and cufflinks.
James Murray, Digital Insight Manager for Experian Marketing Services commented: “As we predicted Cyber Monday smashed previous online shopping records with Brits making a massive 112 million visits to online retailers on Monday. This represents a 32 per cent increase from Cyber Monday last year and is the biggest single day of online shopping we’ve ever witnessed. There is still plenty of shopping time between now and Christmas however, and in particular we are expecting a lot of last-minute panic buying online on Christmas Eve as consumers take advantage of click-and-collect services. Marketers need to be aware of these trends so they can engage with their customers at the right time to maximise sales in what could be a bumper Christmas year for online retail.”
Source: Experian
