‘Omni-channel’ shoppers set multi-billion pound Boxing Day record

EXCLUSIVE

Analysts claim we’ve become a nation of “omni-channel” shoppers – where people scour the shops for what they want – before buying them online.

Indeed figures show online shopping records were being smashed yesterday.

Scots shoppers were expected to have blown £72 million online throughout the course of yesterday, up 22% on last year’s £59m according to Experian.

Many, knowing what they already wanted, decided to dodge the rain, and stay at home spending via their tablets and phones.

But one in eight canny shoppers are believed to have waited until Boxing Day to buy their Christmas pressies.

In total, shoppers were expected to have blown an incredible £3 billion in total yesterday, with many shoppers suffering from so called “bargain anxiety”.

Retail expert, Dr Jeff Bray, of Bournemouth University, said people are becoming “overcome” by the price reductions on offer.

He said: “Shopping can now almost be considered a sport, with people spending lots of time devoted to searching for the greatest bargains.

“We have seen similar situations in other periods of economic hardship but retailers have now more or less conditioned the public to expect heavily discounted goods wherever they go.

“It makes it difficult for shops to make money – but it’s good for the consumer.”

Yesterday saw Scotland’s fastest-ever spending rate, as 2.1m shoppers – one in two adults – spent £260m, a new one-day record, data from the Centre for Retail

Research and online retail chiefs IMRG showed.

The spree worked out at an all-time record £29.2million-an-hour, that’s £487,000 a minute or £8,100 a second over an average of nine hours of trading.

Scotland’s previous record was £29.1m-an-hour, set on December 27 last year.

Barclaycard managing director Paul Lockstone said: “Boxing Day sales remain the most popular day for us to splash our Christmas cash.”

It is estimated buying goods online on Christmas Day itself went above the £700 million-mark this year.

Online retail consultant, Patricia Davidson, who has written seven books on internet shopping, said: “We will continue to see interent shopping grow but it will eventually plateau.

“The modern consumer is an ‘omni-channel shopper’. That means they do a mixture of online and face-to-face.

“The internet is never going to completely replace the experience of touching and feeling something for yourself.”

And the push for bargains spilled over with reports of shoppers scuffling yesterday.

Aggressive shoppers shoved each other to grab bargains, with some workers complaining of rowdy customers.

Next staff member Twitter user nicccb, from Glasgow, tweeted: “Boxing Day ruins your Christmas, especially working the Next sale.”

Shoppers fled in terror at the Intu Shopping Centre in Bromley, Kent, after an alleged knife fight broke out between two men desperate for a pair of bargain trainers.

A man in his 20s was arrested.