Online sales up 16% on busiest online shopping day of the year
The busiest online shopping hour of the year so far was between 13:00 and 14:00 on Monday December 7 as retailers started heavily discounting and consumers looked to scoop a Christmas bargain during their lunch break, payments processor Retail Decisions (ReD) has revealed.
British consumers spent a total of £33 million online during the Monday lunch hour and £1.4 million was spent at 13:43 alone, making it the busiest online shopping minute ever.
Meanwhile online retail trade association IMRG predicts that £350m will have been spent online yesterday, up 16% on a year ago, and that December will see total sales hitting £5bn, an increase of 14% on last year.
“Online retailers are luring consumers with cash back offers, discounts and special deals on the most popular products,” says Carl Clump, ReD’s CEO. “The Nintendo Wii Black topped the shopping charts today, with the Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board, the Samsung LCD TV and the Toshiba Satellite laptop L450D following closely behind.”
“With more and more consumers taking advantage of the convenience and price savings available online, it is no surprise that today sees the highest sales ever online in a single day,” adds David Smith, director of operations at IMRG. “As shoppers go online to bag the Christmas bargains our latest research discovered that nearly three quarters of internet shoppers would be doing half or more of their total Christmas shopping online. If consumers continue to spend at this level we will exceed our December forecast of £5bn”.
3 Comments »
The so called ‘spike in spend’ may well be a positive for the majority of etailers, yet could equally result in disaster for those with sites that are unable to handle the increased traffic. If a customer cannot immediately access an ecommerce site, they’re very unlikely to click back later, instead opting to search for the products they want elsewhere, so creating, maintaining and evolving a robust ecommerce site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is vital.
But it’s not just how robust a site is that could be an issue. Newcomers to ecommerce, or indeed offline brands taking their first steps online, may find their ecommerce offerings fail due to simple mistakes, such as ill-thought-out business rules. For example, if a product is in a consumer’s basket it will generally be removed from the retailers in-stock listing. But what if the consumer clicks away to check the price of the product elsewhere? Does it stay in their basket, and if so for how long? And in doing so, what happens if another customer (who may be ready and willing to make a purchase) wants the same item?
“These, and more, are questions which need to be answered when an ecommerce capability is created, and continually as it grows and evolves. Getting these aspects right are just as important as the robustness of the site itself, especially in the lucrative Christmas period and into 2010. After all, first impressions count online too.
Many consumers are finding online shopping quite convenient and easy. More than anything else its the ease with which we can compare features and prices and can make best buying decision on the internet
[...] Related newsOnline sales up 16% on busiest online shopping day of the year [...]
Additional comments powered by BackType