Boxing Day Brits shop from home

Fewer Brits came out for the Boxing Day sales this year, the result of Black Friday discounts and online shopping. Store visits dropped by 4% up to midday compared with 2016, according to Springboard. Shopping centres and High Streets saw the biggest declines. 

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, says: “The scale of the drop is greater than expected. What we have seen in the last couple of years is a structural shift in the Christmas trading period. The hotspots for Christmas trading around Boxing Day and New Year's Day are dissipating.”

There is set to be a strong rise in online shopping for the full 24-hour Boxing Day period. E-commerce sales are on track to surpass last year, when they rose by 6.2%.