Despite not celebrating Thanksgiving, consumers in the United Kingdom made sure to hit the web in the days that followed the last Thursday in November to shop for holiday gifts.
U.K. e-retail association Interactive Media in Retail Group says the sales and traffic figures for the Friday and Monday following Thanksgiving, often called Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, caught it by surprise, blowing past its own forecast and demonstrating how consumers’ shopping patterns are changing .
IMRG, working with Experian PLC to collect data, says 181 million U.K. consumers spent 810 million pounds ($1.269 billion) online on Black Friday; IMRG had estimated 124 million shoppers spending 555.5 million pounds ($870.2 million). On Cyber Monday, 160.8 million U.K. consumers spent 720 million pounds ($1.128 billion), ahead of IMRG’s estimates of 145 million shoppers spending 650 million pounds ($1.019 billion).
The data mean Black Friday for the first time was a bigger online shopping day in the United Kingdom than Cyber Monday. Historically, the Monday after Thanksgiving has been the bigger online sales day in the United Kingdom, IMRG says. Cyber Monday continues to be the bigger of the two shopping days for online sales in the United States. U.S. consumers spent $2.038 billion online on Cyber Monday and $1.505 billion on Black Friday, according to comScore Inc. data that measured purchases made on desktop computers only, not sales via tablets or smartphones. Total sales figures that included mobile devices would be higher, as various reports suggest 20% or more of online purchases in the United States around Thanksgiving were made on mobile phones or tablets.
Given how U.K. consumers easily surpassed estimates for the holiday weekend, consumers may again exceed expectations when traffic and sales data for yesterday, Dec. 8, arrives. Nicknamed Manic Monday in the United Kingdom (and Green Monday in the United States), IMRG estimated 151 million visits to retail sites and web sales for the second Monday in December of 677 million pounds ($1.061 billion).
The big U.K. sales numbers have led to a surge in deliveries. MetaPack, which provides technology for delivery services, says delivery volume for online orders placed this past weekend increased 25% year over year.
MetaPack CEO Patrick Wall contends that the greater availability of alternative delivery options is making online shopping more appealing to consumers and spurring the sales growth. “With more and more online shoppers opting for click and collect, same-day and Sunday delivery, retailers are changing traditional delivery patterns to meet consumers’ needs for more convenience and choice,” he says. “This is transforming the way people shop online, creating more spikes in online deliveries in the lead-up to Christmas.”
Data from a MetaPack-sponsored survey released earlier this year says 28% of U.K. consumers planned to use click-and-collect services this year. Click and collect is more often called buy online, pick up in-store in the United States, although the “collect” options offered by e-retailers in the United Kingdom is often more varied.
Numerous merchants allow consumers the option to pick up their online orders in lockers placed in non-retail locations, like train stations or gas stations. Locker operator InPost, for example, announced in November the placement of its 1,000th locker in the United Kingdom and says a locker is located within five miles of consumers in 70% of U.K. postal codes zones. U.K. menswear retail chain Moss Bros. will begin offering delivery to InPost locations soon, e-commerce director Neil Sansom, told Internet Retailer last month.
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