Seven percent of British shoppers take full advantage of Boxing Day sales by beginning their shopping for next Christmas on December 26, a new survey from the Royal Mail shows.
One in five (19 per cent) will wait until the summer to start buying gifts, but 22 per cent don’t purchase any presents until December, reports ibtimes.co.uk. In fact, some analysts believe that many shoppers are leaving their online Christmas shopping later as delivery services are now improving, because online retailers rely on them so much.
The first two Mondays of December tend to be the busiest online shopping days on the run up to Christmas, especially the so-called ‘Cyber Monday’. Experian predicts that Brits will spend £451,000 a minute (£649.6 million in total) on December 1 – a 26 percent increase compared to the same day in 2013, reports bbc.co.uk.
Nick Landon, managing director of Royal Mail Parcels, asked consumers to purchase their Christmas gifts as soon as possible this year, so postal workers aren’t lumbered with huge workloads.
“Online shopping continues to grow and people are buying their Christmas presents earlier to take some of the stress out of their Christmas shopping or to spread the cost,” he said. “Royal Mail had also been preparing for the busy festive period and has opened a dedicated network of ten parcel sort centres to handle the additional volume we experience every Christmas.”
Author: Laura Varley
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