Black Friday retains biggest shopping day crown with only £666m spent on ‘Manic Monday’
Contrary to predictions made by IMRG and Experian, Manic Monday was not as frenzied as anticipated with shoppers spending less that they had on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
A projected £666m was spent on Monday 8 December –the last day of guaranteed standard delivery for goods wanted before Christmas Day – which fell just shy of the £676.5m IMRG and Experian had stated on 25 November, three days before Black Friday.
However Manic Monday spend was eight per cent higher than the previous week and saw 149 million visits to UK retail websites. Overall retailers benefitted from a 24 per cent growth of online traffic compared to 2013.
However, Black Friday remains the king of online shopping days. IMRG had predicted that £555.5m would be spent by 124 million bargain-hungry consumers but an estimated 181 million spent in excess of £810m.
Sinilarly, Cyber Monday was expected to result in sales worth £650m, but actual estimated spend exceeded £720m.
Giles Longhurst, general manager of consumer insight at Experian Marketing Services commented: “Following on from a record breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which clearly demonstrated that these traditionally US focussed discount shopping days have stuck in the UK retail calendar, Manic Monday has capped off a massive online retail season.
"The next major stop for online retailers will be the Boxing Day sales, which has for years been the focus for higher spend – the question is, will they continue to eclipse the huge Black Friday spending spree?”