On December 3.
Online group ebay.com.au is forecasting December 3 will be the biggest shopping day of the year, when an estimated 2.6-million people will visit the ebay site, with 1.8-million shopping on mobile devices. Throughout the day there will be four gifts purchased every second, two of these on mobile.
According to eBay head of retail insights, Gavin Dennis, Australian shoppers are getting a head start on Christmas and this year, a full week earlier than the past few years.
“We’re seeing people taking advantage of great deals throughout November and early December to remove some of the stress out of the Christmas period. Electronics, health and beauty, toys and jewellery will be the most popular items and this year we’re also expecting to see even more buying Apple products, with a purchase every 48 seconds,” Dennis said. He also predicted there will be an iPhone sold every 90 seconds.
“Shoppers are continuing to support our home-grown businesses, with more than half of all purchases set to be from eBay’s 40,000 strong network of Australian sellers,” he said.
eBay is also predicting that similar to 2017, outer metropolitan and regional areas will be the most active across the day, with the top postcodes expected to be Werribee (VIC), Liverpool (NSW) and Mackay and Toowoomba (QLD). However, breaking the trend this year is the Sydney CBD, likely to be the second most active postcode, coming in behind Werribee.
Site-wide shopping is predicted to peak between 8.30pm to 8.45pm, while the busiest time for mobile shopping will be 9pm to 9.15pm. The trend of desktop buying during the evening is well and truly over, with desktop sales predicted to peak between 2pm and 3pm on the day.