Boxing Day has long been a key opportunity for e-tailers to draw in online bargain hunters, but new data from SLI Systems, a worldwide e-commerce acceleration provider for mid-to-largeInternet retailers and business-to-business sites worldwide, show that Boxing Day shoppers are now starting their search for sales as early as Christmas night.
The data, which are from over 20 million site searches on approximately 100 Australian customer sites over the month of December, show that there were peaks in online shopping activity at 8:00pm (AEDT) on Christmas Day and 10:00am (AEDT) on Boxing Day. Boxing Day exhibited 49.6 per cent more activity than Christmas Day.
“Traditionally Australians have waited until the morning of Boxing Day to pick up a bargain in the post-Christmas sales, but our data show a trend which this year saw significant online activity on Christmas Day, peaking at 8:00pm. Savvy online retailers should take advantage of this unexploited opportunity,” said Mark Brixton, regional director APAC, SLI Systems.
SLI Systems, a cloud-based site search provider with national retail clients such as Dick Smith, Glue Store, Terry White Chemists and SurfStitch, suggests that this new trend is an ideal opportunity for online retailers to get ahead of their competitors by starting online promotions earlier than usual.
Despite the interesting peak on Christmas evening, Boxing Day remains the unrivaled key shopping period for online bargain hunters. In fact Boxing Day page views were 66 per cent higher than the average across the month of December.
