Record Christmas spending

Wednesday, 18 January 2006 12:00

Britons broke records this Christmas, spending more online and taking more money from cash points than ever before.

UK consumers spent £7.7 billion shopping online in the run up to Christmas, while £9.8 billion was withdrawn from cash machines over December, new figures show.

In the first three weeks of December online sales were running at almost £1 billion a week, internet analysts IMRG reported.

And this means over the ten weeks leading up to Christmas Eve Britons spent 54 per cent more than they did in the same period last year.

"Consumers just couldn't get enough of internet shopping at Christmas - it seems to match their mood and aspirations," said IMRG managing director Jo Tucker.

"Websites struggled to cope with the soaring traffic levels, stocks sold out early, and delivery companies were at full stretch dispatching the 200 million parcels ordered.

"Sales demand outstripped supply capacity by a significant margin, otherwise sales would have been higher still."

But spending more than ever online did not stop UK residents from spending in the real world as well.

A record 153 million cash machine withdrawals were made in December - that represents 3,426 withdrawals every minute with more than £3,000 being taken out every single second over the month.

In total £9.8 billion was taken out, 7.3 per cent more than in 2005, with Britons withdrawing an average of almost £64 each visit, according to Link - the organisation that runs cash machines in the UK.

"This was a record year for seasonal cash machine transactions with figures reaching new heights this Christmas," said Graham Mott, of Link.

"Despite pessimistic predictions about consumer spending, it appears that UK consumers began their Christmas shopping and socialising towards the end November this year."

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