LONDON: Several millions of bargain buyers spent the Christmas Day on the internet buying items of their choice at several of Britain's large stores offering seasonal sales early enough this year.
Tesco, the country's largest retailer, reduced the prices by as much as 50 per cent on some non-food items and it reported that sales of these items over the internet had more than doubled on Christmas compared with last year. At peak times, its website, Tesco.com, had been receiving more than 5,000 orders an hour. The company said nearly one million shoppers had used the website in the last two months, shopping for gifts, food and alcohol. In December alone, it had delivered 750 tonnes of potatoes, enough mince pies to line two football pitches and 35,000 jars of cranberry sauce.
Other retailers that have opened their sales included HMV, Clarks, Miss Selfridge, French Connection, Benetton, Gap and Mango. Online sales opened on the Christmas day at Dixons, Comet, Marks & Spencer, PC World, Currys, Argos, Woolworths and Virgin Megastore. Cornet said an estimated 100,000 customers had bought items from its online shop in a day on Christmas day.
A spokesperson for the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield said a lot of people seemed to have left their Christmas shopping to the last minutes. "There are quite a few stores who are not waiting for Boxing Day and have already started the sales. And there are quite a few bargains out there to be had, such as winter boots and coats."
Shops, which will start their sales on Monday, include Shelly's and Top Shop, along with the Body Shop, Boots and Superdrug.
A survey carried out for Travelodge said spending in the post-Christmas sales would reach 1.4 billion pounds with 11 million people buying things spending on an average 130 pounds each. It also said 30 per cent of men had made up their mind on what to buy and 17 per cent had fixed an upper limit on their spending, while 18 per cent of women had a fixed idea of their shopping list and only 8 per cent had set a limit.
It is estimated that Britons spend 2 billion pounds a month online — severely affecting traditional high street shopping.
For the first time, Tesco offered toys like Roboraptors and scooters on its website and it said its non-food item sales went up 50 per cent during Christmas. Chief executive of Tesco.com Laura Wade-Gery said, more people throughout Britain have opted for a Christmas of convenience this year, and busy families have been able to do both food and Christmas presents shopping with the store.
Tesco said Madagascar and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were its most popular DVDs and Need for Speed was the most popular computer game for the PS2.
In the U.S., holiday shoppers spent $25 billion online through the week ending 16 December. Surprisingly, a survey of 1,000 adults revealed that electronics and apparel topped the categories of attraction. The Goldman, Sachs & Co., Nielsen/NetRatings and Harris Interactive's Holiday eSpending Report found that computers and consumer electronics accounted for $3.75 billion and $3.67 billion, respectively, or a combined 28 per cent of online spending.
Posted
on : Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:15 GMT | General News
By : Pippa Fielding
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