By Chris Lee

‘Manic Monday’, ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’ are all terms attached by marketers to shopping days leading up to Christmas when consumers are expected to spend a record amount online for that year. This year, thanks to increased trust in ecommerce coupled with a cold weather snap preventing consumers from hitting the High Street, experts predict that a massive £12.4 billion will be spent online on Christmas presents.

A record £831,000 was spent online in one single minute during “Cyber Monday” – 6 December – when 128 transactions per second were recorded at 13:15 GMT, beating the previous busiest minute from 7 December 2009 when £732,000 was spent.

Armchair consumerism

According to a survey by retail website Kelkoo, a quarter of consumers (25 per cent) will be shopping online this year.

Chris Simpson, marketing director at Kelkoo, said: “Just as retailers were getting used to the idea of a good Christmas to aid the recovery, they are hit with the worst weather in years. Consumers have little interest in venturing into a winter wonderland; instead it’s all about surfing online in the comfort of their own home, with key multi-channel retailers like John Lewis reporting a trend of flat sales in their stores, while online sales have seen a dramatic increase of 62 per cent.”

Building trust

While Kelkoo’s study found that a quarter of all consumers planned to shop online this Christmas, another study has found that among regular Internet users almost half will be shopping online, implying a growing faith in the security of online shopping.

According to a study by software download service Softwareload and research group YouGov, 47 per cent of British Internet users will be shopping online this Christmas, with more than a quarter (27 per cent) intending to do more than half their Christmas shopping online.

The study also found that levels of trust in online shopping vary according to age and is highest among 35-44 year-olds (59 per cent) but lowest in over-55s (45 per cent).

“What is interesting is that 25-44 year-olds – those who have grown accustomed to online shopping and have disposable income – are the demographic that both trusts the Internet most and uses it most widely for their Christmas shopping,” said Dirk Lebzien, head of Softwareload.

Bring it back

While late November and early December might bring good cheer for online retailers and delivery companies alike, not every consumer will be satisfied with their purchases.

Delivery company Collect+ has added the day “Boomerang Thursday” to the festive mix, predicting a rush of returned goods as consumers hurry to replace gifts before Christmas. An estimated 1.5 million parcels will be returned this week.

[Disclaimer: the author works with Softwareload’s PR team]