Christmas and Boxing Day break online retail records

Online retailers enjoyed a welcome boost following a December blighted by weather-related disruption with Christmas Day achieving record figures and Boxing Day proving to be the busiest online shopping day of the year.

The John Lewis website was the sixth most visited UK online retail outlet on Boxing Day
The John Lewis website was the sixth most visited UK online retail outlet on Boxing Day

Traditional High Street brands dominated the UK's top 20 most visited retail outlets, in figures from Experian Hitwise, joined by online giants including eBay, Amazon and iTunes.  

Hitwise recorded and 32% increase in traffic from Christmas Eve to Christmas day.  

Boxing Day managed to top this by 26%, recording a peak in traffic 12% higher than the previous busiest day, 5 December.  

Experian said department stores and fashion retailers accounted for 13 of the top 20 most visited retail websites in the UK yesterday, with consumer electronics and entertainment sectors also performing well.

Boxing Day's most popular UK retail websites by share of visits

 

 Rank  Website  Share (%)
 1  eBay UK
 9.96
 2  Amazon UK
 7.02
 3  Argos  3.53
 4  Next
 2.19
 5  Your M&S
 1.98
 6  John Lewis
 1.89
 7  Currys  1.81
 8  Debenhams  1.71
 9  Play.com  1.71
 10  Comet  1.40
 11  Tesco  1.10
 12  Tesco Direct
 1.04
 13  River Island
 0.86
 14  PC World
 0.84
 15  Amazon.com  0.80
 16  New Look
 0.79
 17  House of Fraser
 0.77
 18  Topshop.com  0.76
 19  Asos  0.74
 20  Game  0.71

 

Source: Experian Hitwise

The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) predicted , a period traditionally absolved from festive spending fever.

High Street stores are also enjoying good business. was spent at packed stores and shopping centres across the UK yesterday alone.

The British Retail Consortium estimates £5billion will be spent in the sales this week, though today it warned retailers were bracing themselves for a difficult year ahead, with .

Topics

You have

[DAYS_LEFT] Days left

of your free trial

Subscribe now

Get a team licence 

 Give your teams unrestricted access to in-depth editorial analysis, breaking news and premium reports with a bespoke subscription to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10.

Find out more

Market Reports

Get unprecedented new-business intelligence with access to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s new Market Reports.

Find out more

Looking for a new job?

Get the latest creative jobs in advertising, media, marketing and digital delivered directly to your inbox each day.

Create an Alert Now