As the trend for shopping moves away from the High Street to online retailers, industry analysts SimilarWeb report that Boxing Day (26 December) saw a 16% average increase in business in online shopping. There was a significant increase in shoppers using smartphone apps in this period as well, confirming speculation that shopping apps are the way forward for e-tailers.

The biggest winner from online shopping on Boxing Day was Homebase that saw a 138% increase in traffic on Boxing Day, based on desktop and mobile visits. B&Q’s diy.com saw a 94% increase in visits that day too. Meanwhile Sainsbury saw a 71% increase in traffic that day.

The research saw that smartphone apps were the most popular means of online shopping in the UK, with 66% of those browsing online using smartphones. A statement from SimilarWeb suggested, “Retailers also appreciate that the majority of their customers are now browsing and buying over this period on their smartphones, and appear to be offering a seamless service across all touch points on one of the busiest shopping dates of the year.” Companies with their own apps that did well were QVC (62%), Asda (52%) and Geek with 49% increases in traffic.

It is quite telling that the biggest winners on Boxing Day were home improvement and DIY companies as customers move into home improvement ahead of Spring from their indoor oriented shopping during autumn and winter. Digital Insights Manager for SimilrWeb, Pascal Cohen said, “Boxing Day provided major online boosts for leading home improvement retailers who registered some of their biggest spikes in traffic for the entire year.”


With online shopping rapidly catching up with high street retailing as the shopping method of choice, it seems that those with well prepared online presences have benefitted the most from visits for the January Sales.