Cyber Monday grips online shopping

Shoppers are expected to take advantage of a flurry of sales and discounts on cyber Monday.

13:06 02 December 2013

Cyber Monday or the busiest online shopping day is now expected following Black Friday, when many UK shops offered big discount after the US Thanksgiving public holiday. Retailers, which are looking forward to festive spending, say that Monday could be the busiest online shopping day in history.

In fact, Amazon hopes for over 3.5 sales while John Lewis, who predicted that iPads, Ugg boots, and cashmere to be the most wanted items, is expecting 80,000 orders. Meanwhile, credit card Visa expects £450m to be spent, with 7.7 million online transactions. If this is realised, this will be 16per cent higher compared to 2012.

Jeremy Nicholds, director of commercial development at Visa Europe, said: "UK consumers' love affair with online shopping will reach its peak on Mega Monday. Online shopping now accounts for more than 25% of spend with Visa in the UK, signifying the confidence that consumers have in the security of online payments and in the delivery of goods."

Meanwhile, Mark Lewis, online director at John Lewis, said: "Our customers' shopping habits have changed over the past few years, and our peak time for browsing and shopping on johnlewis.com is now Sunday evening.

"With shoppers becoming more comfortable when purchasing via mobiles and tablets, coupled with better connectivity and the rise of smartphones so people can browse online through the day, it's not surprising the way we shop has changed."