‘Manic Monday’ to outstrip Cyber Monday with 151 million visits to online retail sites and £676.5 million spend New figures produced by the global information services company, Experian, in conjunction with IMRG, the UK’s industry association for online retailers, have tipped online Christmas shopping to set new records this December. This will eclipse both Cyber […]
‘Manic Monday’ to outstrip Cyber Monday with 151 million visits to online retail sites and £676.5 million spend
New figures produced by the global information services company, Experian, in conjunction with IMRG, the UK’s industry association for online retailers, have tipped online Christmas shopping to set new records this December.
This will eclipse both Cyber Monday and Black Friday as key retail dates:
• Black Friday will see 124 million visits to retail sites and £555.5 million spent
• Cyber Monday will record 145 million visits to retail sites and £649.6 million spent
Buoyed by increasing consumer confidence in delivery times and click & collect, and also fuelled by the widespread use of mobile technology, the Experian-IMRG projections estimate that the key peaks for pre-Christmas online shopping include “Cyber Monday” (the 1st Monday in December) and “Manic Monday” (the 2nd Monday in December). Huge online spending increases in 2014 are also predicted as people are more comfortable shopping online and leaving it increasingly later in the run up to Christmas.
Insights are taken from the combined datasets of Hitwise, Experian`s online competitive intelligence tool, and the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index using historical data and trends to make estimated predictions for 2014.
According to Experian and IMRG:
• Manic Monday will surpass Cyber Monday and will be the busiest pre-Christmas online shopping day in the UK, with 151 million online visits to retail sites spending an estimated £676.5 million.
• Online traffic on Manic Monday is expected to be up 26 percent year on year, with shoppers spending an average of £470,000 each minute.
• Online sales on Black Friday are expected to reach £555.5 million, with smartphone and tablet devices accounting for £196.6m.
James Miller, Senior Retail Consultant at Experian Marketing Services said: “Christmas 2014 is on track to be another record breaking year for online retail in the UK. Continuing a trend we identified last year, Cyber Monday will no longer be the busiest pre-Christmas online shopping day, with Manic Monday expected to take the lead. With increased confidence in the standard of delivery services and ‘click and collect’, we expect to see people break away from traditional shopping habits. This is why it`s key for marketers to make sure their Christmas campaigns reflect these peaks of interest and know their audience in order to offer them the gift ideas they are looking for through the best channels to engage them on.”
“We have identified a number of key demographic types, who are believed to be behind the rise of online sales during the festive period. Online shopping is an important leisure activity for a wide variety of people, from active middle-income families with teenage children to young singles. These tech-savvy groups are typically early adopters of new technology trends, prolific online shoppers, and active users of mobile and tablet devices.”
Tina Spooner, Chief Information Officer at IMRG said: “The US phenomenon of Black Friday is now firmly embedded in the UK e-retail calendar and, while the first two weeks of December are traditionally the peak festive trading weeks for the online retail industry, Black Friday now marks the start of the online shopping season.
Smartphones and tablets are set to account for over half of all traffic to retail websites during the festive season and on Black Friday alone, online spend via mobile devices is set to reach over £196m.
“E-retail sales have grown 17% year-to-date in 2014 and retailers are increasingly confident in their online performance during the fourth quarter, which indicates the industry is gearing up for another record-breaking Christmas.”
