UK e-retailers gearing up for £12.4bn Christmas bonanza

Online retail sales in the UK are likely to peak at a whopping £23m an hour on 6 December as the festive shopping period starts in earnest and e-commerce sales hit a yearly high, according to industry body the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and payment processor Retail Decisions.

Total online spend for November and December is anticipated to be £12.4bn, IMRG said, as the industry continues to go from strength to strength.

"The first Monday of December has traditionally been the busiest online shopping day," said IMRG managing director David Smith.

"Indications from our Index are that this will be the case again, with all the biggest online retailers agreeing from what they have seen of consumer behaviour. We estimate that over £500m will be spent online on 5 and 6 December. "

Every UK citizen spent an average of £85 online in October, a year-on-year increase of 23 per cent, according to the latest IMRG stats.

Total online sales for the year have grown by 17 per cent to £46bn, indicating that this Christmas is likely to be a boom time for online retailers.

David Kelly, managing director of hosting firm Rackspace,warned retailers to ensure their sites are easy to navigate, follow PCI data security guidelines and stock levels are well managed.

“Provided that retailers have a solid plan in place to cope with the influx in traffic, sites should weather the storm, and can reap the benefits whilst other e-retailers struggle and fold under the extreme pressure of Christmas shopping sales,” he added.

However, there were warnings from some quarters that fraudsters will also be looking to cash in on the Christmas rush with increasingly sophisticated scams.

Akif Khan, director of products and services at secure payment processor CyberSource, advised retailers to maintain an end-to-end view of their transaction screening activity.

"A combination of tools is critical to help identify any anomalies, as are the right validation tools," he said.

"For example, newer forms of device fingerprinting offer a rich set of data points about the transacting device and its behaviour, rather than the apparent identity. Comparing transaction information across multiple merchants is also valuable."