Black Friday to smash UK online sales records as Cyber Monday trails behind

After Black Friday led to a weekend long shopping bonanza in the UK,
consumers continued to splash out during Cyber Monday, although their
appetite for online bargains had noticeably weakened.

IMRG, online retail experts, estimate that close to 451,000 pounds were
spent per minute during Cyber Monday, bringing the total spend close to 650
million pounds, which is a 26 percent increase from last year and making it
one of the busiest online shopping days yet.

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Black Friday online sales overshadowed Cyber Monday in the UK

However, this amount was overshadowed by the estimated 810 million pounds
spent online by UK shoppers on Black Friday, as the borrowed retail holiday
stand to take the top spot as largest shopping day of the year from Boxing
Day, the day after Christmas, once store sales have been taken into
account.

Last week Friday saw UK shoppers jump online to snag deals offered by
retailers for the day, with a number of websites crashing, including John
Lewis, Net-a-Porter and Topshop, as they were unable to cope with the
demand. In comparison, most retailers websites were functioning normally
during Cyber Monday, which was previously coined as the day to shop online
by American industry body the National Retail Federation in 2005 to
encourage consumers to shop online.

Data gathered by online shopping tracker Postcode Anywhere also notes a lag
in online orders placed on Cyber Monday in comparison to Black Friday.
According to the figures, 267,370 orders had been registered by 6 pm on
Monday night, which is more than last year but less than the 404,835 orders
logged by the same time on Black Friday.

“The Black Friday sales saw Britain’s most savvy shoppers logging online in
the early hours to secure the best bargains and spend their cash,”
commented Guy Mucklow, Postcode Anywhere’s chief executive. “It is clear
that because many of those deals spanned the payday weekend, many shoppers
were already spent by the time Cyber Monday landed.”

With improved delivery services, click and collect services and improved
online connectivity, Cyber Monday has lost some of its appeal as the top
online shopping day of the year as more consumers leave their shopping
until the last minute.

Mintel, market analysts predict that the UK total online spend during
Christmas could hit 4.7 billion pounds, whilst Experian expects next week
Monday, also known as Manic Monday to see British shoppers spend close to
470,000 pounds a minute, with more and more consumers have a great
confidence in pre-Christmas delivery.