• Only one in 12 expected to get up early to queue for Boxing Day Sales 
  • Limited trading hours the day after Boxing Day expected to boost online sales
  • One in seven plan to shop online on Christmas Day

Sunday hours over the Boxing Day weekend are expected to impact store footfall as shoppers plan to go online instead, according to Barclaycard.

A third of shoppers are planning to capitalise on Boxing Day offers, Barclaycard research found, but just 8% said they were going to queue outside a store to bag a bargain.

Last year spending on Boxing Day rose just 1.2% in store, but jumped 13.8% online, according to the poll of more than 2,000 adults. 

Sunday trading hours on the day after Boxing Day are expected to further dampen footfall and drive shoppers online, according to Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all UK debit and credit card transactions.

The Christmas trading period has been marked by an increased shift online as shoppers have made use of later delivery cut-off dates.

Panic Saturday

Last Saturday footfall numbers fell 4.3% year on year, despite the day being dubbed ‘panic Saturday’.

The Barclaycard poll, conducted online among 2,001 adults, also found that one in seven people plan to shop online on Christmas Day, with a third of those saying they were motivated by fear of missing out on a bargain. A fifth said they would shop online on Christmas Day because they were bored.

Amazon said earlier this week it expected its biggest-ever Christmas Day sales on Friday.

John Lewis said it planned to start its Sale at 5pm today online and in its stores from Sunday.  

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