Christmas Eve is the new Boxing Day

The traditional sales on Boxing Day started early this year as UK omnichannel retailers anticipated a shopping frenzy on Christmas Eve.

Consumers are continuing their Christmas shopping searching for heavily-discounted prices, which effectively means the post-Christmas clearance sales are already under way.

UK will see biggest Boxing Day sales in decades

Dubbed ‘The Perfect Storm’ – mild winter weather and consumers now expecting major discounts – we're seeing the biggest ‘Boxing Day Sales’ for a long time, only they're happening two days early, kicking off in the UK on Thursday as stock-heavy retailers panic-sell piles of unsold winterwear. The number of apparel and footwear products on offer could be the biggest in thee decades, experts say.

Retail analyst Richard Hyman said 72 percent of the UK high street was already on sale, adding he had “never seen anything remotely like it” in more than 30 years. He noted some stores were "desperate" and might be tempted to cut prices to unprofitable levels.

Accountancy firm Deloitte said the price cuts were the biggest since 2008.

Andy Street, managing director of department store group John Lewis told the BBC: "It's all to do with the weather – it's been an extremely mild autumn and that has led fashion retailers to reduce their prices."

So what will be left after Christmas Eve? Well, lots actually. Major stores are offering offer up to 50 percent in-store, rising to 70 percent discount online, but those discounts will be continuing on the high street on December 26.

Internet shopping on Christmas Day alone is expected to be up by 11 percent on last year to a new high of 728 million pounds.

Figures from VoucherCodes and the Centre for Retail Research suggests 22m shoppers are set to spend 3.74 billion on Boxing Day, a 6 percent increase on last year, while online sales are set to rise 13 percent on last year.

Barclaycard managing director Paul Lockstone said: “While the traditional Boxing Day sales remain the most popular day for us to splash our Christmas cash, an increasing number of us are starting our shopping even earlier as we worry about missing out on the best bargains.”

Visa Europe said high street spending on its cards reached around 1.3 billion pounds on Wednesday, peaking between 1pm and 2pm when 3.2m transactions took place, making it the biggest shopping day of the year.

VoucherCodes managing director Claire Davenport said: "While pre-Christmas sale dates have soared in popularity over the last couple of years, it seems they are yet to take over our more traditional savings days, with many retailers choosing to go all out on Boxing Day, running deals as early as Christmas Day right through to the start of the new year.