More than half of shoppers expected to spend more on Boxing Day than Black Friday this year, a survey by Barclaycard said, as people search for deals ahead of expected price rises next year.
Last year, sales on Boxing Day were about 1 percent ahead of the year before in an unexpected uplift, Barclaycard said.
A similar rise could be on the cards this year, but the majority would be online.
Festive season spending was up 3.1 percent ahead of the final week before Christmas, credit and debit card company Mastercard said, adding that online retailers were experiencing the best of that sales growth with a 12 percent lift on last year.
Slower sales of food, jewelry and luxury items held back growth.
“We are always very pleasantly surprised how strong Boxing Day and the following days remain every year. There is that tradition of hitting the sales and it seems to go on and on,” said Gordon McKinnon, who is operations director of shopping center group Intu, which owns 10 centers including the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex, England.
“Christmas Day could be the biggest ever for online shopping, but Boxing Day is about seeing what’s out there in the shops. People are still looking for a day out,” he said.
Some stores, such as Harrods, turn the sale into an entertainment event, with a butler-themed musical performance put on for shoppers lining up this year.
Westfield welcomed more than 350,000 shoppers across its two London centers on Boxing Day last year, compared with 330,000 on Black Friday, center development director Duncan Bower said.
“We expect to see similar numbers again this year,” he added.
Boxing Day has lost some of its allure, as shops began discounting weeks before Christmas.
A number of fashion chains, including Dorothy Perkins, New Look and French Connection, already had discounts of up to 50 percent as they tried to clear piles of unwanted coats and knitwear after a warm start to the season.
The US-inspired Black Friday in late November is now thought to be a bigger day in terms of total sales than Boxing Day.
Saturday was also a contender for the highest spending day as cash-strapped shoppers left their present buying to the last minute in the hope of picking up a bargain.
With many major retailers, including John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, now starting their end of year sales on Christmas Eve, nearly ￡900 million (US$1.2 billion) was expected to be spent online on Christmas Day, 11 percent more than last year, the Centre for Retail Research and VoucherCodes said.
Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said the number of shoppers out on Boxing Day had dropped for four out of the past five years.
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