The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has suggested that smartphone and tablets are likely to be behind the record number of sales made online over the Christmas period.
According to freshbusinessthinking.com, Helen Dickinson, director general at the BRC, said more people chose to shop online than ever before this Christmas.
“The surge in the use of tablets and smartphones last year, together with the ever faster delivery times achieved by an increasing number of retailers, have provided a new spur of growth to online shopping,” she explained. “Multichannel built on its strong position across all stages of the customer journey, from browsing and comparing prices to buying and collecting in-store.”
Almost one in five of all non-food items were purchased online in December, reports bbc.co.uk. Overall, online purchases of non-food goods increased by 19.2 per cent compared to the previous year. During December 2012, online sales rose 18.4 per cent.
David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, estimates that the next couple of months will be relatively quiet for sales, as the majority of consumers will be focusing on paying off Christmas. He also noted that until wage growth outpaces inflation, many households will try to stick to a strict budget, so spending could suffer.
Comments are closed.