It was another bumper Christmas for online retailers, as more and more of us exchanged parking nightmares and long queues for cups of tea, feet up by the fire and some online retail therapy in the peace and quiet of our own living rooms.  Exact figures aren’t yet available, but all of the big e–commerce players are reporting record sales.  But under the headlines there are some surprises in the detail…

December is silly season for all in the retail sector, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the web.  Whilst Christmas retailing on the High Street has fallen or stagnated over recent years, online retailing continues to soar, and that’s despite a rise in interest rates and a dip in consumer confidence.  In fact early signs suggest that in some sectors, online shops experienced growth of 10% – 20% over December, with our American brethren enjoying up to 30% growth.

However it’s the nature of this online spending which is most surprising.  The heaviest spenders aren’t the 25 – 34 demographic, rather it is the 45 – 54 age group which leads the charge with Christmas online retailing.  David MacDonald who is Head of Retail Advertising at Google comments “People who never spent money online are coming online.”  And he should know – the three months leading up Christmas account for 40% of online spending, according to his company’s research.

In terms of numbers, early stats suggest that 6% – 8% of UK consumers did their shopping online, buying 10% – 12% of overall UK sales totals.  This gives a clue to the demographics of the online purchaser, giving strong hints that they are prepared to spend more than the average punter on their purchases.

But we can identify other important trends in shoppers behaviour on the web.  Whereas on the High Street Thursday and Friday nights, and weekends are the busiest times, on the web Monday is the biggest shopping day, with most transactions happening on a Monday lunchtime.  It appears therefore that people are shopping with a two pronged approach, doing their research over the weekend in shops where they can touch and feel product, and then buying on a Monday, enjoying the lower prices and generally superior stock availability online.

Users are also taking full advantage of the price comparison engines such as shopping.com, Froogle and Kelkoo.  This empowers the customer to make intelligent informed choices about shopping, which all adds to a very positive retail experience.  This is of particular relevance for certain types of goods, and the value of researching the likes of electronic goods, video games and flat screen TVs before buying online, is clear when you review the value of sales in those sectors.  But there are more surprises – last Christmas clothing and furniture were two of quickest growing sectors.

The fact that lunchtime is the busy time on a Monday also points to a clue that most people are doing their online shopping in the office rather than at home.  Despite the ongoing pre–eminence of broadband, it seems that people prefer to be at work in front of a computer (perhaps with some peace and quiet at lunchtime) when they do their online shopping.

Should allow plenty of time to make best use of the January sales!