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Posted by admin on January 20th, 2009

It appears that the current economical climate really is affecting us all with reports that this years shopping figures are the worse since records began in the 1960’s.

Every year companies expect their sales figures to grow by anything up to 25%, but this year many high street stores were already reporting a drop of 2.6% on previous years. However, the good news is that online purchases have rocketed with reports that by the start of December, VISA had processed £600m of online payments.

Many of the major high street retailers are holding Pre-Christmas sales, some even cutting their prices by up to 50% in the final few days leading up to Christmas. The companies feeling the losses the most are the ones without an online presence.

‘Mega Monday’, the 2nd Monday of December, once again proved to be the biggest day for online shopping with sales up by 14% on last year and sales of £1m a minute by midday! It is also reported that although it was the biggest day for sales, it was only the third busiest day in terms of visits to retail sites, suggesting that consumers are researching products more thoroughly before purchasing. Many sites on the web have been offering major price reductions and free delivery on Christmas orders to attract buyers, and it appears these attractive offers are proving far too tempting, with many of us being forced to cut our Christmas budgets but still attempting to make them stretch as far as possible.

Sales have reached record levels this year with an average of 37% off the usual selling prices. With people still finding lower prices online it is reported that 80% of us plan to avoid the high street and shop online for gifts, a statement backed up by Experian’s report that high street traffic on Saturday had fallen by 13.12% and IMRG predicting online sales of £13bn before Christmas!

I think the figures speak for themselves about the importance of having a strong online presence. Studio 2 Online are experts at creating dynamic websites and believe in ‘making you sales while you sleep’, whatever the time of year. If you would like more information about developing your online presence why not give us a call on 0116 2758456 and see what we can do for you.

A final (quite worrying) note about where the millions are being spent online, it appears Chris was right about the secret santa gifts with one of this years most purchased items being…. the mankini! At least I am hoping they are secret santa gifts and not a disturbing new trend in male beachwear for 2009!

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Ecommerce Website Designers Leicester