Online Shopping Figures Soar Despite Downturn, Top Cashback Reports

Jan. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Recession, economic downturn, austerity measures and the VAT rise have failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the British shopper, and figures from Barclays Bank predict that the doom and gloom about the economy will do little to stop some record spending figures, estimated at £48.9bn, 9% up on last year*.
The continuing growth in online shopping is reflected in Top Cashback's own figures that show a 60% rise in the number of transactions made by their members during November and December. And only 6 days into the New Year, Top Cashback has already seen the value of purchases reach a third of the total for the whole of January last year with the average transaction value up by 27%.  
Thanks to the heroic efforts of the Royal Mail, couriers and delivery companies, most packages made it in time for Christmas at a time when few people wanted to venture out and battle with dangerous roads, freezing temperatures and slushy pavements.
According to a YouGov survey of 2,000 online adults in November last year, 51% of respondents trust online shopping and coupled with the convenience and choice it offers 47% said they would be shopping online and 27% planned to do more than half their Christmas shopping from the comfort of their home,
In a shift away from traditional shopping habits, as many women as men said they'd be shopping online for gifts. Previously men were more likely to do their shopping at the computer while women preferred the High Street.
Figures from the leading online intelligence company Experian Hitwise showed that Boxing Day was the busiest day of the year for online shopping with December 27th the second busiest, 4.5% up on last year. The top website visited was ebay – presumably as people went online to sell unwanted gifts or to bag a bargain from someone else's unwanted pile.
Top Cashback Director Oliver Ragg said “There will always be those prepared to queue all night for a real bargain but our members get the bargain prices, earn cashback and don't need to sleep outside their favourite store ready for the crush when the doors open.”

ENDS
Date: 06 January 2011
Issued by Duncan Robb
For further information call 0207 1939 029 or email duncan@topcashback.co.uk

Notes for Editors:

* Barclays predicts nearly £49 billion in Christmas spending

TopCashBack is the UK’s most generous and biggest free to use cashback website.  Retailers pay a referral commission for any purchase made on their website via topcashback.co.uk but rather than keep this commission, Top CashBack passes 100% straight back to the customer as ‘cashback’.  TopCashBack is funded by sponsored adverts across the site.  The basic aim is to help each and every UK resident to save as much money as possible on their online shopping.  Established in 2005 TopCashBack has an ethos of ‘fair play’ and has gone from strength-to-strength with a member base now approaching ¾ million.

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About Top Cashback, Online cashback website with approaching 700,000 registered members and over 2,550 affiliated merchants, the UK's most generous and biggest free to use cashback website.