Shoppers turn to ecommerce over festive period  

Thursday, December 29th 2011 by John Burns

A variety of studies showed that people were logging online rather than hitting the high street to do their Christmas shopping and now figures show that ecommerce is the winner in terms of sales shopping too.

Data from Experian Hitwise shows that online shopper numbers were up on Boxing Day compared with 2010, with around 13 million hours being spent online shopping collectively.

Retail websites received around 96 million visits, up 19.5 per cent year on year, making December 26th the biggest online shopping day in UK history.

In a blog post, Experian analyst James Murray said that the record number of online shoppers could be attributed to the fact that Boxing Day fell on a Monday 13 a day when online shopping often peaks.

In terms of which stores fared best, retail giants eBay UK and Amazon occupied the top spot and second place respectively, with eBay being responsible for nearly ten per cent of shoppers' visits.

Completing the top ten were Argos, Next, John Lewis, M&S, Debenhams, Currys, eBay and Play.com.

A high number of fashion retailers performed well, with ASOS, River Island, New Look and Topshop all appearing in the top 20.

One notable trend this festive season is the growing popularity of mobile shopping which means shoppers with smartphones can buy anywhere, anytime.

According to figures reported in the Guardian, mobile traffic to the John Lewis online clearance sale has soared 119 per cent year on year as customers compare prices and avoid the high street crowds.

This trend is likely to be related to the number of people receiving new mobile phones or tablet devices for Christmas, with figures from Apple showing that around five million new iPads were operating by Boxing Day.

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