Christmas 2009 retail update: How did the top retailers fare?

Amazon said that it had a busy Christmas with 2 million orders delivered on its busiest day which was December 7. At its peak it said it was shipping over 1.2m units in just 24 hours.

eBay sees mobile purchases triple over Xmas: Mobile internet purchases on eBay tripled over the 2009 festive period compared to the same time last year. The online auctioneer revealed that more consumers than ever bought gifts and other items via the site's iPhone App Store and other mobile internet applications. Consumers purchased 1.5 million items on their mobile handsets during the Christmas period, which is equivalent to a sale every two seconds. In all, eBay mobile users generated more than $500 million in transactions during 2009.

John Lewis sees record start to online sale: Online sales at John Lewis’ Clearance sale were up 23% in its first three days. The retailer experienced its busiest ever hour online when it launched the online Clearance at 6pm on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day online shoppers made a purchase every 10 seconds, but the volume of sales dropped between 1pm and 4pm as people enjoyed their Christmas lunch. On Boxing Day the retailer saw a record number of visitors to the web site, peaking between 11am and midday.

Marks & Spencer celebrates "good" Christmas: Online sales at Marks & Spencer grew 32% in the 13 weeks to 26th December. The retailer hailed Christmas trading a success after posting a 0.8% like-for-like sales growth over the festive period but warned that trading conditions during 2010 will remain challenging. The retailer reported a 1.2% comparable sales rise in general merchandise and food sales advanced 0.4% in fourth quarter of 2009.

Next exceeds Christmas expectations: Stronger than expected Christmas sales rounded off a strong second half for Next with like-for-like sales in the 22 weeks to Christmas Eve up 3.2%. The retailer upgraded its full year profit forecast from £490m to £500m. Sales for its directory business grew 6.8% with total Next brand sales ahead 5.2% for the half. Next added that it had entered its Sale with 12% less stock than last year and that clearance rates are in line with last year.

Record Xmas sales at Ocado: Ocado has revealed sales soared 49% in the week leading up to Christmas, reaching £8.9 million, as the online grocer delivered 3.5 million items to 42,000 customers. Like for like sales in the four weeks ending 26 December were up 30% from 2008, reaching £40.8 million. The number of orders received rose 34.5% to 299,291 and the average customer spend was £136 during the four week period.

Shop Direct reports strong Christmas sales: Shop Direct Group reports online sales increased 19% in the six week period to 1st January 2010. Total sales for the period were up 6.3% compared to last year. The retailer said online sales now account for 65% of all sales and it is well on track to achieve its online sales target of 70% by financial year 2010/2011. One million customers visited Shop Direct web sites during the six week period. The retailer saw significant growth of over 30% on electrical goods, driven by sales of iPods, laptops and games consoles. All the group’s brands enjoyed a successful Christmas following a comprehensive multimedia campaign with customer traffic to Very.co.uk rising 31% and sales increasing by 26%. In total, Shop Direct delivered almost 8 million items over the six-week Christmas period.

Source: www.IMRG.com

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