More than £100m will be spent online on Christmas Day

Internet retailers will see a huge spike in sales on Christmas Day, according to IMRG.

The membership community for the e-retail industry has predicted that sales will reach on £103.6 million as people go online to make the most of the Christmas sales.

It said that £84 million was spent on the internet on Christmas Day 2007 and there was a 44 per cent increase in traffic from the day before.

The firm reached its huge figure by speculating that this year will see 15 per cent growth.

“What’s different about this year is the huge growth we’ve seen in the week before Christmas as consumers have left their shopping to the last minute,” commented Play.com’s chief operating officer Stuart Rowe.

“If this continues we’ll see significant growth on Christmas Day as people spend their Christmas money and gift vouchers.”

However, the outlook was not so positive for high street retailers, with figures from Experian revealing that there was 8.7 per cent less footfall at the weekend compared with a year before.