Christmas shoppers to spend £17.4 billion online

By / Sally Hooton / In In the News /

Online sales set to account for close to a quarter of all Christmas spend in the UK, with the average household forecast to splash out a total of £775 on the festive season. Mobile shopping is expected to grow by 301% year-over-year.

UK shoppers are set to spend a record £74.3billion in the run-up to Christmas, with almost one in four pounds expected to be spent online, according to research commissioned by digital offer marketplace RetailMeNot – operator of VoucherCodes.co.uk. The study, conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, forecasts that online sales at Christmas will grow by 19.5% to £17.4 billion this year, compared to £14.5 billion in 2013.

On the high street, shoppers are expected to spend £56.9billion this year, but as Christmas Day draws closer, the proportion of online retail sales is likely to increase as consumers turn to the web to escape the crowds. As such, e-commerce is predicted to account for 23.4% of Christmas sales this year, up from 20% in 2013, while bricks-and-mortar sales are expected to decline by 2.1%.

Mobile shoppers to drive increase in Christmas spend

With Brits increasingly using tablets and smartphones to shop, mobile purchases are expected to account for over a quarter (29.8%) of all online Christmas sales, up 301% compared to last year, and representing a total of £5.2 bn, almost twice as much as the Germans (£2.9bn) and nearly three times higher than in France (£1.8 bn)

Although the PC is still the killer outbound channel for Christmas shopping, with a predicted £12.2 billion to be spent by Brits, tablets and smartphones are increasingly important. This year, tablets are expected to account for £2.1 billion of all Christmas sales, while smartphones are expected to account for £3 billion, representing 18% of all online sales. Brits are set to have the highest share of online and mobile shopping in Europe this Christmas (23.4% and 29.8% respectively) and are even ahead of the US, where 18.7% of the Christmas shopping will be done online, of which 28.4% is projected to be mobile.

Giulio Montemagno, senior vice-president of international at RetailMeNot, said: “Retail spending in the weeks before Christmas is the most important period of trading for retailers both online and offline. Retailers, particularly of specialist merchandise, will often take 20% or more of their sales in this period.

“This Christmas looks set to be a bumper year for online retailers as a record number of consumers will be turning to the web to order gifts. With shoppers spending 23 pennies out of every pound online, retailers must ensure that they are appealing to consumers through mobile and tablet devices. The study reveals that almost 30% of all online Christmas sales will occur on mobile this year and in such a competitive retail environment it’s more important than ever that retailers have a solid mobile strategy in place to target shoppers as they shop online or in-store.”

Brits set to be biggest Christmas spenders in Europe

The international study also found that British shoppers are likely to be the highest spenders during the Christmas season in Europe, with a total projected spend of £74.3billion, followed by the Germans (£61.2billion) and the French (£54.9billion). UK Households are expected to spend on average £459 on gifts, £172 above the European average and £22 ahead of the US.

Username

Basic Information

First Name *

Last Name *

Company *

Job Title *

Country *

Account Information

Password

Confirm Password

E-mail Address

Confirm E-mail

Biographical Info

Share a little biographical information to fill out your profile. This may be shown publicly.

Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions – website usage

Welcome to the Global Marketing Alliance (GMA). The GMA website is a product of the Global Marketing Alliance Ltd. If you continue to browse and use this website, you are agreeing to comply with the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy, govern GMA’s dealings with you in relation to this website. If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions, please do not use our website.

GMA may amend these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting the amended Terms and Conditions on the GMA site.

The term GMA or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is at 7a Queen Street, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1BA, UK. The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website or to those who become members of GMA.

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
The information provided and the opinions expressed in this website represent the views of the authors and contributors.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. We are not liable for any inaccuracies or errors.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, it is your responsibility to check that the information available meets your requirements.
This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
Information on this site may be contributed by our members or other contributors (including in blogs). We do not control the information they provide and are not responsible for the views expressed
If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed on this site please notify us. We accept no liability for infringements as a result of user generated content but we will take reasonable action to remove such content where possible.
Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, we take no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
We reserve the right to refuse, suspend or cancel your access to the site at any time and without notice.
If you are acting as an employee, you warrant that you are authorised to enter into legally binding contracts on behalf of your employer. You further warrant that your employer agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
Purchases of training products or delegate places at events advertised on this site are subject to the terms and conditions of the providers.
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Copyright notice

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

you may print extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
you may refer to and quote from the content for review or reference purposes within the limits of “fair dealing”, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material
You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

I agree to the Terms and Conditions

Full Name LEAVE THIS BLANK

I agree to the Terms and Conditions

Author: Sally Hooton

Editor at The GMA | www.the-gma.com

Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!