Preston, UK (PRWEB UK) 10 December 2014
Manic Monday, dubbed the biggest online shopping day of the year, has once again smashed current sales records in the UK, with small to medium sized retailers taking the spoils.
Cyber Monday which happened last week was big, but Manic Monday was predictably bigger. It edged last week’s peak by 4.5% on the ekmPowershop network, but compared to the same day last year there’s a huge increase of 30.2%. That’s a truck load more goodies under the tree this year!
For the past 5 or so years, we’ve come to expect the second monday of December to be the biggest online shopping day. Prior to this, the first Monday of the month was the traditional ‘busiest day’, dubbed as ‘Mega Monday’… before the American ‘Cyber’ namesake started creeping into retail parlance.
Even though Black Friday's buying frenzy saw unprecedented success with record sales levels in physical stores, Manic Monday was able to trump these numbers online as consumers leave it later to buy presents than in years gone by. These latest numbers confirm that even with all the hype last week, the less loud and brash Manic Monday is still the day shoppers are choosing to spend their money on.
ekmPowershop’s epic retail survey is the largest of its kind – it monitors tens of thousands of online shops in the UK and across the world. This comprehensive research reveals SMEs as the big winners this Christmas, growing at a faster rate than retail giants such M&S, Amazon and John Lewis. The wider industry saw an increase of around 25% on last year’s Manic Monday (Internet Retailing/Metapack), whereas businesses using ekmPowershop saw an average increase of over 30%.
Steven Hickey from ekmPowershop comments, “SMEs have the advantage of being agile in peak periods, with the ability to change elements of their strategy quickly. Retail giants have to plan way further in advance. The hysteria created by the media and major players like ASDA, Tescos and Amazon around Black Friday and Cyber Monday also creates a general buying frenzy which smaller retailers benefit from. We have however noticed a lack of ‘Manic Monday’ specific promotions amongst SMEs, which suggests there’s further gains to be had from this sector in the future – as smaller businesses inevitably become more savvy with technology and marketing themselves in general”.
Considering many small and medium businesses are failing to promote themselves in and around Manic Monday, these numbers should be a big incentive for them to prepare for and get the most out of the festive shopping frenzy next year.
