Money Watch – Personal Finance Blog

It has been revealed that two thirds of Britons are set to shop online during the discount holiday, ‘Cyber Monday’ (1st December this year), with 62% of shoppers planning to purchase gifts on the promotional day, which will see online retailers drastically cut their prices. Overall, the research calculated that the nation as a whole is expected to part with over £1.5billion online on this day alone.

The research, conducted by www.vouchercloud.com, polled 2,478 British adults, all of whom were 18 years old or over, with an even split of male and female respondents. The survey was conducted as part of ongoing research into the socio-economic trends of the British public, taking into account the cut-price Black Friday and Cyber Monday events during the run up to Christmas.

Initially, the survey asked all respondents “Are you planning to shop on Cyber Monday?” explaining that Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday, when many e-retailers offer drastic promotions and slash their prices. 68% of respondents stated that they were planning to shop on Cyber Monday, with these respondents stating that they were expecting to spend £85 on average. When calculated up to create a national spend, this would see £1,503,480,000 spent online during just one day.

In order to understand more about the products which shoppers were looking for, the survey then asked respondents who were planning to shop on Cyber Monday whether they had earmarked particular products to purchase, to which 71% confirmed they had.

The survey then asked the same group whether they were planning to purchase any gifts, to which 62% stated that they were. ‘Partners’ (48%), ‘parents’ (34%) and ‘parents in law’ (31%) were the most likely recipients of these cut price gifts. When asked if they would tell the recipient their gift was bought at a reduced price, less than a third (32%) stated that they would be open about their savings.

Matthew Wood of vouchercloud.com commented:

“Cyber Monday is one of the key days in the Christmas shopping calendar, not just for the spending public and retailers, but for us as well.  Year on year we see dramatic increases in visitors looking for the best promotions out there, so we work really hard to provide the best deals for this period.”

He continued:

“The holiday isn’t just for those purchasing Christmas presents, it is a great day to bag any kind of bargain; so it’s no wonder the nation as a whole is looking to spend over £1.5billion on this day alone.”