Despite the hype surrounding Cyber Monday today, when online Christmas shopping is widely predicted to peak, just 5% of Brits asked in an independent poll commissioned by Virgin Media say they will purchase the majority of their festive gifts on this day. Key findings below: • Overall web traffic to dip on Cyber Monday says […]
Despite the hype surrounding Cyber Monday today, when online Christmas shopping is widely predicted to peak, just 5% of Brits asked in an independent poll commissioned by Virgin Media say they will purchase the majority of their festive gifts on this day.
Key findings below:
• Overall web traffic to dip on Cyber Monday says UK’s fastest network
• Online Christmas shopping more popular than high street with 55% using computers and laptops and 18% using mobiles and tablets
• One in ten to use public WiFi to buy gifts on the go while a quarter of people will ‘showroom’ in hunt for best value gifts
According to the study of 2,000 UK adults, more people will wait until Christmas Eve than will buy online on Cyber Monday, December 2nd. 7% of those asked will leave their web shopping until the day before Christmas while another 7% of respondents will wait until after December 25th to buy gifts in online Boxing Day sales. 56% of people will do their online Christmas shopping over a number of weeks rather than a single day.
Joe Lathan, director of broadband and home phone at Virgin Media said: “Cyber Monday is usually thought to be the first big web milestone of Christmas but it’s an oddity as data usage could easily drop to levels lower than the previous Monday if high numbers of people are shopping online at the same time. People are doing more and more online but will pause or put off higher bandwidth activities like streaming entertainment to concentrate on Christmas shopping, which, when considering that around a third of the traffic from our four million customers is from streaming at peak times, can create a considerable shift in usage.”
Joe Lathan continued: “Everyone now expects to get online quickly, be it for ordering gifts or watching TV anywhere. After the quiet start on Cyber Monday we’ll go on to see the most bandwidth hungry Christmas yet as the country consumes more data from more devices simultaneously. Based on 2012 network data, we’ll see notable growth in traffic from Christmas day through to the New Year as potentially millions of new devices are unwrapped and go online for the first time. Our customer’s appetite for more data and greater speeds, whether it is for WiFi calling, or getting the best of their TiVo boxes through their tablets is why we’re boosting our customer’s speeds as high as 152Mbps next year.”
When it comes to technologies, 55% of respondents will do the majority of their Christmas shopping on a computer or laptop and 18% plan to use smartphones or tablets as their primary shopping devices with 3% actually planning to do the majority of their Christmas shopping over the phone.
10% of those asked plan on using public WiFi in cities and on public transport to make online purchases, making the most of free access such as Virgin Media’s WiFi on the London Underground or on the streets of Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford. With one in four ‘showrooming’ by choosing gifts in store first but then buying online, Virgin Media’s research indicates that technology will be helping shops stay busy in the build up to Christmas.
Methodology
Research carried out by OnePoll with 2,000 UK adults in November 2013.
The IMRG has predicted that total online shopping for December will be worth in excess of £10bn.
