Consumers in the UK will spend online an average of £4 million every hour, day and night during the 10 week run-up to Christmas, according to new research from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), which includes large retailers such as John Lewis, Argos, Comet, Tesco and Ikea.
This will come to a massive £7 billion in total, 40% more than the £5 billion spent online during the same period in 2005, and more than double the £3.3 billion recorded in 2004.
Brian McBride, managing director, Amazon.co.uk, said: “As more and more people recognise the convenience of being able to shop 24/7 from a massive selection at the lowest prices, with delivery straight to the door, here at Amazon.co.uk we are expecting our biggest Christmas yet. Last year we despatched over 400,000 units on our busiest day and we are confident we will beat that this year.”
A recent forecast from Verdict Research came to the same conclusion as IMRG, saying that online retailers are looking at another record Christmas season this year.
Verdict expects the value of goods bought online in Q4 to grow by 35%, reaching £3.4 billion, or 4.5% of all spending at Christmas (see Online Purchases To Grow By 35% In Q4).
Online research company eMarketer has also released a forecast for the run up to Christmas, predicting that online sales in the US will reach $24.3 billion, an increase of 22.1% on last year (see Online Purchases To Grow By 35% In Q4).
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