Christmas traditions return: Boxing Day is going to outperform Black Friday to be the biggest shopping day of the year
Christmas is a time for traditions, and Boxing Day is expected to return to its position as the UK's biggest shopping day.
All those predictions that Black Friday would be the busiest shopping day of 2015 have fallen wide of the mark: experts are now saying Boxing Day will smash records this year.
Sales are expected to be 170 per cent higher than they were on Black Friday, reaching £3.74bn, as 22 million Britons eschew the US import discount day in favour of the traditional sales rush. That figure is a six per cent increase on the amount we spent in 2014, when Black Friday really did eclipse the usual post-Christmas Day frenzy.
In fact, Boxing Day is expected to see £25m more go through retailers' tills than did the entire Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.
This is according to the Centre for Retail Research, which also estimates that the vast majority of transactions – 78 per cent, equivalent to £2.9bn – will take place in store rather than online. However online sales are also expected to surge.
Claire Davenport, managing director of VoucherCodes.co.uk, for whom the research was commissioned, said: “While retailers have been making the most of pre-Christmas sale dates over the last couple of years, it seems they are yet to take over our more traditional savings days, with many retailers choosing to go all out on Boxing Day, running deals as early as Christmas Day right through to the start of the new year.
"Judging from our research, it looks as though consumer appetite for deals is here to stay, both on the high street and online.”