The sales started in earnest this Wednesday on the high street, but there were bargains to be found as early as Christmas Day morning on the internet.
Price comparison site PriceRunner.co.uk monitored activity in all product categories by its monthly user base of approximately 1.7million(1), over an 11 day period as well as pricing levels in key, popular areas like LCD TVs and digital cameras.
Christmas Sale winners
Close scrutiny of consumer trends before and after Christmas in the seven shopping days leading up to Christmas, and compared them to user data during the four days including and after 25th December(2). It found that:
- Searches for white goods increased the most post Christmas, compared to the period leading up to the big day, with increases for searches for tumble dryers of 115%, and dishwashers and vacuum cleaners both up by 89%.
- Accessories were the most consistent purchases for users, with consumers looking to buy computer hard drives (109%), video game console accessories (28%), kitchen accessories (29%) and camcorder accessories (20%).
- Digital SLR cameras were the most popular products users were interested in buying – searches increased 145% from Christmas morning onwards.
And the losers……
The biggest decrease in searches were for laptop computers (-93%), and unusually, golf balls (-67%), hair stylers (-63%) and sandwich toasters (-57%) all became unpopular, whilst products like mini-disc players and cassette decks proved they are being consigned to technology history, with declines of 74% and 73% respectively.
Online shops discount up to 50%
There were some serious bargains to be found online, with white goods, TVs and digital cameras seeing the best reductions(3), including this selection:
- the price of a Goodmans GDVD70W6 DVD player from Argos was slashed £169.99 to £79.99 – a huge saving of over 52%
- a Hoover HNL7146 washing machine from Currys was reduced from £329.95 to £189 – a saving of 43%
- an Olympus Mju Digital 700 Blue from Amazon.co.uk was reduced from £229.99 to £139 – saving 40%
- a Sharp LC-32GD7E LCD TV from Harrods online was £1795, down to £1195, a saving of 33% and
- a Kenwood KCD1W White tumble dryer from Dixons and Currys was £319.95, on sale at £219.95, saving 31%.
Carl White, Chief Executive Officer of PriceRunner Europe, said
“Wednesday (27th December) was our second busiest day in December, and our busiest after Christmas, which shows that people have been waiting for the post-Christmas bargains. We can also see that yesterday our users were interested in comparing and ordering more products per person – a sign that Brits still have cash to spend.
Ahead of what could be the biggest and busiest shopping weekend this year, consumers can avoid the hellish scenes we saw at shopping centres in the last couple of days – avoiding car parking queues and scuffles outside stores – by comparing prices and saving even more time and money online.”
Additional information:
The top ten most searched for categories on PriceRunner post-Christmas were:
- Digital SLR cameras – up 145%
- Tumble dryers – up 115%
- External computer hard drives – up 109%
- Furniture – up 94%
- Vacuum cleaners – up 89%
- Dishwashers – up 88%
- Media centres – up 76%
- Freezers – up 75%
- PC monitors – up 74%
- MP3 players – up 68%
The top ten least searched for items were:
- Laptop computers – down 93%
- Desktop computers – down 88%
- Games console bundles – down 81%
- Mini-disk players – down 74%
- Cassette decks – down 73%
- Spas and saunas – down 72%
- Golf balls – down 67%
- Hair stylers – down 63%
- Printer accessories – down 60%
- Office software – down 58%
