The UK version of "Cyber Monday" has just passed and online retailers will be wondering if all the hype has left them with anything
. Industry analysts predicted that
"Mega Monday" would be the busiest day of the online shopping year and that internet sales figures would be up by 25 per cent on last year.
The credit card company Visa was more specific and foretold that shopping would peak at lunchtime and then again at around 7pm when potential shoppers would be safely at home in front of their computers. Visa said that its cardholders would make 2.4m online purchases and account for one fifth of the UK's consumers spending.
The retail specialist IMRG said that spending on "Mega Monday" would be up 10% on the sales registered for the same day in 2008 and would reach up to 350m. Online retailers Zavvi.com agreed that November the 30th would be the busiest shopping day and that four out of five Brits intended to make some Christmas purchases online.
Yet while Christmas spending enticements are reaching their full beguiling power, figures from the Bank of England show that shoppers are retaining lessons from the credit crunch.
October saw repayment records broken as consumers paid back unsecured debt at the highest rate since Bank of England records began in their current format in 1993. Indeed, repayments for consumer credit have outstripped new borrowing for only the sixth time ever.
This new breed of cautious consumer is the perfect marriage partner for online retailers according to some. David Smith, director of operations at IMRG, said: "Despite the credit crunch, the online retail sector is still growing, with an increasing number of consumers appreciating the ease and efficiency of shopping online. Consumers have become much savvier and cost conscious in the current climate."
Other reasons that online retailers are hoping for a merry Christmas are the increasingly high petrol prices and inflating cost of parking anywhere near the high street. Drivers are being put off by a 15% increase in petrol prices while Christmas parking charges are predicted to net a cool 70million.