Boom in Christmas Day online sales during Queen’s speech

Online shopping during the Christmas Day celebrations reached a record high, according to one of the UK’S biggest e-commerce website provider, EKM.

Powering more than 70,000 shopping sites world-wide, Preston-based EKM says it is Britain’s most powerful rival to Canadian-based e-commerce giant, Shopify.

EKM says that Brits racked up an average order value of £60.32 – around 10% more than online Christmas Day sales last year.

A total of 7,225 click-and-buy sales were recorded, with peak transaction times at 10.30am and 3pm – the latter coinciding with the Queen’s Speech.

As well as spending more of it hard-earned cash, the nation is also dedicating more time than ever to online shopping on Christmas Day.

EKM’s analytics reveal that the average shopper is browsing for up to five minutes on every shopping site visited, but estimates the total time spent shopping is close to an hour.

EKM founder and chief executive, Antony Chesworth, said: “Online retail is rising in general, so it’s not a big surprise to us that people are shopping on Christmas Day while almost all physical shops are closed.

“Our sellers’ websites are geared up for sales 24/7, 365 days of the year, and with more and more transactions taking place via mobile phones, people are casually browsing while they are doing other things – and yes, perhaps even while they are eating their Christmas dinner or watching the Queens speech.”

Established in 2002, EKM says it was the first cloud-based ecommerce platform in the UK.

Today it employs more than 80 staff at a single site in Preston and claims it is still the UK’s biggest, having helped set-up in excess of 70,000 online shops worldwide.

It is estimated that EKM shops generate more than half a billion pounds in sales every year.

Burnley-born entrepreneur Antony Chesworth set up his first business using credit cards after banks told him his business model would not work.