Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
A quarter of consumers plan to shop online more this Christmas, according to market research company Mintel.
Mintel’s director of retail Richard Perks said: “The internet tends to out-perform at Christmas as consumers turn to the internet when they need to do ‘shopping-list’ shopping – when they are buying for themselves, browsing in-store is more of a pleasure.
“Our consumer research backs up our expectations of a strong performance for online sales, with a survey showing that 25% of consumers are planning to shop online more at Christmas 2014 than at Christmas 2013.
“On top of this, our recent E-Commerce report found 41% of consumers are shopping via smartphones and 35% are buying via tablets. Mobile devices are making it easier for consumers to shop anytime, anywhere, and this is bolstering growth in internet sales.
“Whilst online retail sales will be up by around 14% year-on-year, store-based retailers will account for the majority of these internet sales. Stores continue to dominate Christmas shopping; the large majority of December’s retail sales will be offline. But as in-store sales growth will be weak, internet transactions will be surging.”
