Why Online Retailers Do Like Mondays

Monday mornings might be a drag for much of the UK’s population but new research from Retail Decisions (ReD) will probably have online retailers leaping out of their beds with excitement.

On average, Monday’s were the busiest shopping day for online retailers with Monday 7th December being the single busiest day (up by 16% on the same day in 2008 at an estimated £534 million). Monday 28th December was also the first post-Christmas day to make it into the top grossing days in the UK.

Overall, retail sales in the UK grew to £49.8 billion in 2009, up 21% on the previous year. While the state of affairs on the high street might have been gloomy in 2009 (to the extent that Retail Week have even launched a new Manifesto for the High Street in advance of the looming elections), online retail has been going from strength to strength.

Retail Decisions commented that due to consumer’s price sensitivity, many shoppers were spending their weekends browsing the high street and waiting until Monday to find a cheaper bargain online. This emphasises the importance for online retailers of having web sites that are easy to use, optimised for search engines and integrated with multiple channels to stand the best chance of capitalising on shopper intent.