Time for ho, ho, home delivery

WELCOME to the real Cyber Monday – today is tipped to be the busiest online shopping day of the year as thousands of people spend up in order to have their gifts delivered in time for Christmas Day.

The Australian Retailers Association predicts Aussies will purchase most of their gifts online this year, but it also warned to check delivery times to ensure gifts arrived before the big day.

Executive director Russell Zimmerman said research showed online purchases would jump 3.96 per cent this Christmas, and many would be made this week.

“There’s been an incredible amount of people shopping online over the weekend but Monday is probably going to be one of the busiest days for gift shopping,” he said.

Mr Zimmerman said people should check delivery times of any gifts purchased via the internet, as after a certain date “you can’t necessarily guarantee” they will arrive in time.

Australians are expected to spend a total of more than $50 billion over the Christmas shopping period, which started on November 15, according to the ARA and Roy Morgan Research.

Overall, online shopping in Australia grew 8.3 per cent this year, National Australia Bank data shows, with consumers spending $23.65 billion online in the year to October – or 7.6 per cent of the spending in bricks and mortar stores.

Online marketplace eBay Australia expects more than 2.7 million shoppers today – a week later than last year.

“This year we’ve seen the busiest online shopping day pushed out to the second week of December (because) gift shoppers are becoming more confident that they can order online later,” eBay Australia CFO Gavin Dennis said.

“And now 70 per cent of our shoppers are coming from mobile devices so you don’t necessarily need to be at home, on the laptop, shopping – you can be wherever the inspiration grabs you.”

While desktop shoppers had tended to purchase mostly at night, eBay now predicts computer users would buy the greatest number of items between 1pm and 2pm today. “Everyone is going to be busy on their lunch break, shopping online,” Mr Dennis said.

Smartphone shopping is expected to peak between 9pm and 9.15pm, Mr Dennis said.

EBay Australia predicts more than five gifts would be sold every second on its site today, including an electronic gadget every second, a piece of jewellery every three seconds, and an Apple product and a Star Wars item every minute, and more than nine in 10 items bought would be new.