Did you buy much online between Christmas and the New Year? According to Metapack not only were people buying right up to the last possible minute, but they were making more online purchases than ever before over the holiday period.
As Metapack predicted the online shopping volumes remained high in the week running up to Christmas and only started to tail off on Thursday the 20th, the Christmas cut-off date for most major retailers. A 28% increase in volume was recorded for this week in comparison to last year.
Record volumes were recorded for the period between Christmas and New Year with a 69% year on year increase. Clothing, Footware, Home and Garden and Sports and Leisure were the sectors which drove growth in this period.
Retailers have been responding to these swelling volumes by increasing operational hours. Debenhams, Boohoo, House of Fraser, The White Company, Barratts, Misguided, Sports Direct and ASOS were among the retailers who had warehouse operations running everyday post Christmas with ASOS even preparing goods for despatch on Christmas Day.
“Internet shopping goes from strength to strength, with people having the confidence to leave their Christmas shopping later and then looking for bargains for themselves even after cut-off dates have passed. And where it may not be possible to get out to the shops on the public holidays the ease of getting online and buying from home seems to win out and the online retailers that are exploiting this fact will be the winners in 2013,” says Patrick Wall, MetaPack CEO and Founder.
What was your best bargain during the sales, and more importantly, how were your sales if you didn’t shut down until the New Year?
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