Boxing Day sales begin on December 23 with shops offering £500 off TVs and retailers slashing prices by 80 per cent three days early
- Shoppers fail to turn up on the last Sunday before Christmas with footfall down
- Stores have mountains of stock to clear after the expected shopper rush failed
- Fashion firms Boohoo and ASOS have been running sales for more than a month
Boxing Day sales started online yesterday and many high street stores will slash prices today as they battle to overcome a huge slump in shopper numbers.
Debenhams launched its online sale with big savings across fashions, beauty, electricals and toys, while other top names will follow today.
John Lewis begins its clearance sale online at 5pm while Marks & Spencer launches its version at lunchtime.
On Christmas Day online spending is expected to hit £1billion, with experts predicting 11 million shoppers will splurge £1.19bn – a 20 per cent increase from last year.
Shopping online is predicted to continue on Christmas Day with more than £1billion splashed out by an estimated 11million buyers, according to a Centre for Retail Research study for VoucherCodes
House of Fraser is already claiming big reductions while Currys PC World is offering up to £500 off supersize ultra high-definition TVs along with deals on smartphones and laptops from 7am.
Online fashion brands Boohoo and ASOS have been running sales for more than four weeks and yesterday were claiming savings of 80 per cent.
Stores have mountains of stock to clear after the expected rush of shoppers on ‘Super Saturday’ failed to deliver a surge in takings.
Boxing Day sales started online yesterday and many high street stores will slash prices today as they battle to overcome a huge slump in shopper numbers. Last minute shoppers are pictured on Marylebone High Street in London
House of Fraser is also claiming big reductions while Currys PC World is offering up to £500 off supersize ultra high-definition TVs. Shoppers are pictured on London’s Oxford Street during last year’s Boxing Day sales
Shoppers are seen on Boxing Day 2018 outside another Oxford Street store. Boxing Day sales started online yesterday and many high street stores will slash prices today
Two companies that measure shopper numbers said there was a sharp fall compared with the last Saturday before Christmas in 2018.
Springboard said: ‘Super Saturday did not materialise, with an annual decline in footfall on that one day of 7.6 per cent.’
A survey by Ipsos Retail Performance put the fall at 6.2 per cent. Shopping online is predicted to continue on Christmas Day with more than £1billion splashed out by an estimated 11million buyers, according to a Centre for Retail Research study for VoucherCodes.
That would be up by around 20 per cent on 2018. Debenhams said although it has already launched its Boxing Day deals online, they will not go live in stores until December 26. Oak Furnitureland has followed the same approach.
Meanwhile people living in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle, who are signed up to Amazon Prime Now, can place orders until 9.15pm today to get delivery by midnight.
Argos is offering same-day deliveries for orders until 1pm today.
Two companies that measure shopper numbers said there was a sharp fall compared with the last Saturday before Christmas in 2018. Shoppers are pictured on Oxford Street last year
Shopping online is predicted to continue on Christmas Day with more than £1billion splashed out by an estimated 11million buyers, according to a Centre for Retail Research study for VoucherCodes
