December 25 'to see £1.2bn retail spend online' in UK

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 7, 2021

Christmas Day will be a major shopping day for Britons, ParcelHero claimed on Tuesday, with consumers set to spend £1.2 billion online.

The delivery specialist said over 11 million shoppers are expected to “buy all the things they had wished for but didn’t get” as Christmas Day is rapidly becoming one of the biggest events in retail. It’s also, of course, a key day for clearance activity. 

Last year. shoppers spent £1 billion online on the day, with a significant uplift expected this time.

The firm’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks, said: "The growth of Christmas Day as a shopping event has become a retail phenomenon. Previously, Boxing Day launched the big post-Christmas sales season, but now it’s Christmas Day itself.”

We might also assume that some of the online activity on December 25 will be linked to consumers listing items on sites like eBay, Vinted or Depop that they don’t want.

Jinks cited eBay figures that showed last year, Britons were given £2.2 billion-worth of unwanted Christmas gifts.

He also said that over the last few years. Christmas Eve has been growing in popularity as a key day for online shoppers who have left everything to the last minute. But anyone expecting a same-day delivery at that late stage could be disappointed due to well-publicised supply chain issues.

“Christmas Eve same-day deliveries look highly ambitious this year,” he said. “Amazon, Argos, ASOS, Net-a-Porter and Zara still claim to be able to take an online order and deliver it on the same day. However, this year, several of these stores are now wisely saying that 24 December orders will only be deliverable same day for specific postcodes”.

He believes more retailers could tighten their delivery dates as Christmas nears, beyond the slightly earlier timings many have already published.