Figures show that Christmas Day is no longer a retail day of rest, with increasing numbers of people opting out of family festivities in favor of Christmas Day shopping online with their smartphones and tablets.

Christmas Day shopping online is fast becoming “the norm” with research by travel firm Inghams showing that one in five shoppers this year are expecting to start their online bargain hunt on the 25th.

Christmas Day 2017 is set to see a surge in shopping online, according to research from affiliate network affilinet. The study was commissioned in order to learn more about the public’s shopping habits over the festive period. 2,758 UK adults took part in the poll, all of whom were aged 18 or over and celebrate Christmas.

The study revealed that more than half of Britons indulged in Christmas Day shopping online last year. Of the 53% of participants that admitted to shopping online last Christmas Day, the majority (43%) did so on a smartphone, 28% used their iPad or tablet device, 27% used either a laptop/desktop computer and 2% used a TV/games console.

While the majority were keen to spend money they had been gifted, 53% were also driven to shop out of boredom and 21% confessed that they felt ‘unsatisfied with their presents’ and so were shopping to fill gaps in their own wishlists.

61% shopped on Boxing Day, 53% shopped on Christmas Day, yet only 18% shopped on Christmas Eve.

The average spend for Christmas Day shopping online in 2016 was £128.

59% of those who shopped on Christmas eve, Christmas day or Boxing day said that they spent more than they intended. Only 10% bought something that dropped in price due to Boxing day or New Year sales.

Christmas Day Shopping online with Amazon

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, released an hour-by-hour breakdown of their Christmas day performance. Its sales on Christmas Day have more than doubled over the past five years and it is anticipating its busiest Christmas Day ever this year.

Amazon find that last-minute panic shoppers go online early in the morning to buy presents, with orders of gift cards peaking at 10:00am.

Sales of e-books, mp3s, apps and TV downloads climb sharply at about midday. Last year more downloads were sold at 12.13pm than at any other time.

This surge is most likely due to people unwrapping their electronics gifts and then wanting music, books and games to load onto them minutes later.

Many of those use the gift cards they were given hours earlier, with a spike in the number of vouchers being redeemed at lunchtime.

Sales dip at 3pm in the UK as the Queen’s televised Christmas speech is broadcast, before DVD sales linked to festive TV shows increase around  7pm.

Last year, 8.52pm was the busiest minute of the shopping day, with people relaxing on the sofa, shopping the early Boxing Day sales.

Takeaways

1. Mobile responsive store design is essential to Christmas day sales success
2. Vouchers are essential. Both BigCommerce and Shopify stores are fully mobile responsive and can sell vouchers.
3. Sell everywhere. This is a time of high impulse and people are most likely to head to big marketplaces. Sell to eBay, Amazon, Etsy and more at the same time as selling from your own website with a Shopify or BigCommerce store.
4. Don’t think of it as a dead shopping day. You have seen the stats, people are shopping on the 25th. If you are planning a Boxing Day sale, it may be worth putting that live a day early
5. This is a chance for you to be in early on an emerging trend. Smartphones and the increasing ease of shopping have enabled Christmas day purchasing to rise significantly, but many retailers are yet to fully embrace the smartphone shopper mentality. Perhaps a mail campaign on Christmas day may be a little overzealous, but a targeted Facebook campaign could catch potential customers who are bored whilst waiting for lunch or relaxing on the sofa in the evening and perhaps even feeling a little less cautious about spending after a few Baileys.