£1bn online frenzy
Web splurge forces stores to fight back with panic sales
STORES are launching panic sales to lure back shoppers who have switched to hunting for deals online rather than queuing in the cold and rain.
An estimated 11million of us – one adult in four – were thought to have been browsing for bargains yesterday between opening their presents and tucking into the turkey.
Spending is expected to have hit a record £1.19billion, which would be up some 20 per cent on 2018, according to a Centre for Retail Research (CRR) study for discount website VoucherCodes.
While this is good news for web stores, it will turn the screw on retailers who rely on sales in shops at a time of crisis on the High Street. Experts at the CRR argue this switch to online shopping is changing the nature of the Boxing Day sales with spending through high streets, retail parks and shopping centres predicted to fall by around £460million to £3.25billion today.
By contrast online sales today are
‘Most of their discounts on Black Friday’
expected to rise by 10 per cent on 2018 to £ 1.14billion. Big- name stores slashed prices yesterday, with retailers such as Debenhams offering savings of up to 75 per cent.
Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser also started their sales early. Huge reductions are forecast, with stores sitting on a mountain of stock – particularly winter clothes and shoes – that failed to sell for Christmas.
With retailers such as Debenhams and House of Fraser planning store closures across the UK in the New Year, the range and scale of price cuts are likely to be particularly eye-catching. The CRR is predicting around 15million people will visit stores today.
A spokesman said: ‘By Boxing Day people will have experienced many discount events, such as Black Friday, and we expect the numbers attending the sales to reduce.’
Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all credit and debit card transactions in the UK, blamed the downturn on shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday bargains.
The bank said Boxing Day spending was 4.8 per cent higher in 2018 than 2017, but a record Black Friday this year could mean that shoppers may have already made the majority of their purchases.