Christmas day online shopping boom expected

17:41 23rd December 2009

Rather than spending Christmas day tucking into their turkey and watching the Queen's speech, an increasing number of Brits are likely to be found logging on for some online shopping.

According to research from IMRG, the average person will spend £27.90 on December 25th.

And a study by Kelkoo highlights that a growing number of people will be heading to ecommerce sites before the new year to take advantage of the lower VAT rate and bag a bargain in the sales.

"As a nation, we can't resist a bargain," Richard Stables, chief executive officer at Kelkoo told Internet Retailing. "Last year, 3.8 million people bought goods online on Christmas day, a craze which was triggered by several e-retailers like Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Boots, Debenhams and Play.com starting their online sales early on December 25th."

He added that with VAT going back to 17.5 per cent on January 1st 2010 online retail sites are set to be even busier over the festive period.

Research revealed earlier this week by IMRG and Capgemini highlighted that Brits have also been hitting the online shops in the run-up to Christmas, with £5.3 billion being spent over the internet in November, a 25 per cent rise compared with the previous month.

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