British consumers have already spent an average of £220 on online purchases in the January sales, with furniture, clothing, tech items and holiday deposits emerging as the biggest expenditures, according to new research.
Those making the most of the online sales offered by retailers this January believe they have saved themselves as much as £180 thanks to discounts and price cuts, with more than two thirds admitting to researchers that they are guilty of buying items that they wouldn’t have ordinarily bought at full price.
The team at affiliate network affilinet polled 2,821 Britons aged 18 and over as part of research looking at the effect online sales have on the spending of British consumers. All those taking part disclosed to researchers prior to being questioned that they had purchased at least one item in the online January sales so far this month. All research was compiled by Friday January 12th 2018.
All respondents were initially asked to estimate roughly how much they’d spent shopping online in the January sales so far, with the average total emerging as £220. When asked to look back and
share how much they believed they’d saved on sale items purchased due to online discounts and offers, the average was stated as £180 per customer. Participants were then questioned on whether they’d been persuaded to purchase anything online at full price since the new year commenced, almost two thirds (64%) stated that they had been, with £115 revealed as the average spend on these goods.
In order to uncover the items most likely to be purchased online in the January sales, all respondents were given a list of different items and asked to state which they’d purchased a reduced price, with the most common answers emerging as follows:
- Furniture – 28%
- Clothing – 26%
- Tech/electronic goods – 21%
- Holiday deposits/tickets – 13%
- Homewares – 9%
When asked if their January sales purchases had been planned, just under one fifth (19%) confessed they had, with the remaining 81% admitting that the discounts on offer had been mostly impulse buys. When asked if they regretted any of their orders, just over a third(34%) revealed that they were planning on, or had already, sent at least one item back to the retailer.
Rick Leake, Client Services Director at affilinet, said: “Online temptations surrounding the January sales can be almost too much for customers to resist, with pop-up ads on social media everywhere you look as soon as Christmas is over. The chance to bag a new sofa or a 2 week holiday to the Caribbean at half the normal price is too good an opportunity to miss out on in the moment, but Britons should be wary of committing to such an expense before parting with any cash, as often sale items are non-refundable.”