Record breaking Cyber Monday at intu as music lovers stock up on headphones

intu, the leading developer, owner and manager of prime regional shopping centres in the UK, has enjoyed a record breaking Cyber Monday, as consumers flocked to its website in search of special deals.

Following on from the strong footfall at intu’s shopping centres on Black Friday and the Saturday, with over 1 million customers visiting on both days, just under 125,000 unique users visited intu’s website on Cyber Monday, beating Black Friday and showing an increase of 58% on last year and 125% compared to an average day. Online traffic surged in the morning, reaching its peak at 11.22am. In terms of the profile of buyers, 34% of visitors were females aged 18-34 compared to 17% of males of the same age group. The next highest group were females of 35-44 years compared to 8% of males of the same age. Overall, females made up 65% of the total number of online visitors.

Commenting on the record visits, Trevor Pereira, commercial and digital director at intu said: “Cyber Monday lived up to the hype this year, with a record number of visits and purchases compared to last year. Customers really made the most of the multiple channels to secure products, using both our shopping centres and online website from Friday through to Monday to tick off items on their shopping list.”

The use of different platforms to access deals at intu’s site was also a prominent feature of the day, with 75% of all online traffic coming via mobiles and tablet. This rose to 84% when also accounting for the traffic to the website via email click through. In terms of transactions, almost three in five purchases were completed on a mobile and seven in 10 on mobiles and tablets.

“We’ve been discussing the growing role of digital handheld devices in the retail sector for some time and now we’ve seen it in action, “ added Trevor Pereira. “Customers were hunting for deals while on the move or at work to ensure that they didn’t lose out on their wanted items. This was combined with visits to our centres, with over a million people walking through our doors on Black Friday and the following Saturday, underlining the importance of multi-channel retailing and the growth of click and collect.”

Of the items purchased, headphones were by far the most popular item on Cyber Monday, representing 60% of all sales followed by a good spread among other products, including smart watches at 7% of sales and Android tablets at 3%.

“It seems as if the lovers of music and electronics dominated Cyber Monday, representing a significant proportion of sales on the day. Indeed, Cyber Monday was electric for us, helping us achieve record visits and sales,” said Trevor.