Brits to spend almost half a billion quid online on Boxing Day

For the last three years, Boxing Day (26 December) has been the biggest single online shopping day of the year in the UK and, according to recent forecasts from the IMRG and Experian Hitwise, 2012 will be no exception.

by Helen Leggatt

Using IMRG data, Experian Hitwise have calculated that Boxing Day 2012 in the UK will be "gargantuan", forecasting a 31% rise on last year's 96 million Internet visits.

"We're predicting Brits will spend 17 million hours shopping on Boxing Day making a massive 126 million visits to retail websites," says James Murray, digital insight manager for Experian. Last year Brits spent 13 million hours shopping on Boxing Day.

During the 17 million hours of online shopping this year, Brits are expected to spend almost half a billion UK Pounds (£472.5 million) or around $767 million making it the biggest online retail day in British history.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are also predicted to be big online spending days. Consumers are expected to spend £225 million ($366 million) and £307 million ($498 million) respectively on these days.

In recent years the traditional January sales have crept forward and, for many retailers, now begin before Christmas Eve. This year they appear to have started even earlier with retailers already offering up to 50% off. Large department stores such as John Lewis are sticking to December 24 as the start of their online clearance sales and Amazon has brought its Boxing Day Deals back to December 25.

Tags: Hitwise, holiday 2012 trends, January sales, online shopping, online spend, UK