Consumers in the UK are expected to spend hundreds of millions of pounds online today in a bid to find Christmas shopping bargains.
The day, known as Cyber Monday, the first Monday following the US shopping phenomenon Black Friday, is seen by many as marking the start of the online Christmas spending spree.
Payment firm Visa said this morning that Brits will make 4.8 million transactions and spend around £303m today, which equates to £210,000 per minute. If the prediction is correct then it would represent a 12 per cent year-on-year increase.
Steve Perry, commercial director at Visa Europe, said he expects shoppers to be more organised this year and purchase Christmas presents earlier.
He said: "We are expecting many shoppers to remember the effect that adverse weather conditions had on online deliveries last year, so there will undoubtedly be increased desire to place online orders early."
According to online retail website eBay, however, Super Sunday (December 4) will be the most popular day for Christmas shopping and bargain-hunting online. The firm said it was expecting 5.8 million people to browse its UK site and predicted a sales peak of 30 gift purchases every second.
Fellow online retailer Amazon believes Monday, December 5 will be the busiest online shopping day. In 2010 the company received orders for 2.3m items on the first Monday in December.