Gone in 60 seconds

£750,000...

According to research from the Interactive Media in Retail Group, three quarters of a million quid was spent in the UK at nine minutes past one this afternoon.

This is all to do with the pre-Christmas online shopping frenzy, triggering what is expected to £370 million in sales just today - almost double the average online shopping day.

IMRG, understandably, claims today will the biggest single day in the history of shopping on the web in the UK.

Which is nice...

Some more online Christmas shopping facts:

* The biggest hour ever will be between 11-12am that day, with sales worth £32.400,000, two hours earlier than the peak hour last year, on Monday 4th December 2006.

* 40% of the sales that day, worth £148,000,000 will take place outside of traditional shopping hours, either before 9am or after 6pm (i.e. when most high street shops are shut), up from 38% last year.

* Monday 10 to Sunday 16 December will be the biggest e-sales week of the year, with online sales worth £2.359 billion, almost three times the £0.885 billion average for the year.

* Total Christmas e-retail sales (i.e. Q4 2007) are expected to reach £17.6 billion, an 82% increase of the £9.6 billion recorded for the same period in 2006.

* Full year 2007 e-retail sales will be £53.3 billion, 76% higher than the £30.2 billion recorded for 2006, and considerably exceeding the £42 billion IMRG estimated at the beginning of this year.

* The UK's 27 million online shoppers will generate 860 million parcel deliveries in 2007.

It's just a shame if you want to buy a Wii.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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