Shoppers to blow £380m in Boxing Day frenzy

Retail: Record spree for bargain hunters in stores and online

Nearly half of Scottish adults will make today Scotland’s biggest shopping day in history, blowing a record £380 million amid Boxing Day price cuts of up to 90 per cent.

The monster spree – dubbed “the big one” by retail insiders – will be approaching double Black Friday’s £221m, and almost treble the pre-Christmas Day Saturday spending of £142m.

Bargain hunters were expected to have queued for sales from midnight on Christmas Day night.

Analysts said today’s record spree in Scotland will be triggered by many shoppers focusing solely on Boxing Day rather than other sales days.

Enormous price cuts are expected amid a post-Christmas splurge after shopper numbers were down 9.9 per cent before Christmas Day.

A total of 1.2 million shoppers in Scotland will spend £292m in stores today, up 11 per cent from last year’s £265m, said a Centre for Retail Research study for VoucherCodes, which included interviews with 80 major UK retailers and 1,000 shoppers.

Websites will see a further £88m spent in Scotland, up 7.9 per cent on last year’s £81m, said online retail chiefs IMRG.

Around 800,000 shoppers will take to phones, tablets and computers seeking bargains, according to the study.

More than 17 million retail website visits are expected with electrical store Currys braced for up to 300,000 UK website visitors an hour.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “Boxing Day is the big one. It’ll be the biggest spending shopping day ever.

“Shops said Boxing Day last year was the best day ever – even better than forecast – and the day gets bigger and bigger every year.

“£4bn of UK spending looks a lot. But shoppers spend much more than other days, and the many retailers we interviewed said shoppers are now focused on Boxing Day.

“Shoppers will be queueing from the early hours.

“People are so desperate to get the best bargains they won’t wait until December 27.

“Some people now wait to spend until after Christmas, not before.

“Online spending will be very high. Websites have big discounts and it’s easy to buy in a few minutes via a mobile phone.”

IMRG managing director Justin Opie said: “Boxing Day sales at the shops are an important day in the calendar – but the day is perhaps becoming more online-focused.”

Barely has the last present been opened and the turkey cooled before the rampant consumerism of the festive season is ramped up again. Scots are expected to spend record sums today when the Boxing Day sales get the registers ringing again.

It is expected nearly half of Scottish adults will eschew their traditional family time to begin spending again, with a record £380 million changing hands today. It is a staggering sign of the times. Within memory, the post-Christmas sales would begin in January, allowing bank balances to recover, at least for a few days, and retailers to enjoy some respite after a hard run-up to December 25. Consumers have become cannier though. It is common knowledge that a full-price item on Christmas Eve will be heavily discounted just two days later.

Shops can no longer rely on money in the bank over the extended run-in and the winter sales are more important than ever.

Factor in the increase in voucher gifts and the ease of online shopping and it is easy to see why Boxing Day – and even Christmas Day itself – is a make-or-break period.

Of course, it is good news for the economy in general but High Street stores which rely on footfall must watch in despair and there is also the danger of shopping on credit — those must-have bargains can come with a heavier price further down the line.