A quarter of Christmas sales to be made online as shoppers avoid crowds

Online sales will hit £17.4bn in the six weeks between mid-November and the end of December as total sales are expected to increase by 2.2% to £74.3bn, according to research from the Centre for Retail Research commissioned by RetailMeNot.

Forecasts are in line with research from Mintel that predicted “unspectacular” sales growth of 3% during December, a slower rate than last year.

The Centre for Retail Research figures include next week’s Black Friday shopping bonanza, which is expected to be twice the size this year.

It is estimated UK shoppers will spend £56.9bn this year on the high street and the report predicts the proportion of online retail sales will increase closer to Christmas Day as consumer hope to escape the crowds.

Online and offline Christmas sales 2013/14

The report predicts bricks-and-mortar sales will decline 2.1% this Christmas as the proportion of ecommerce sales grows to 23.4% this year, up from 20% in 2013.

Mobile Shopping as a Proportion of all Online Holiday Sales 2014 (estimated)

Mobile shopping is expected to explode this year and account for £5.2bn of sales, almost twice as much as m-commerce sales in Germany over Christmas.

RetailMeNot senior vice-president of international Giulio Montemagno said: “The study reveals that almost 30% of all online Christmas sales will occur on mobile this year and in such a competitive retail environment it’s more important than ever that retailers have a solid mobile strategy in place to target shoppers as they shop online or in-store.”

Estimated Christmas spending per househould by category (2014)