Boxing Day sales set to break new records in 2016

sincity · December 15, 2016

The Boxing Day sales season has traditionally been a highstreet phenomenon as weary turkey-stuffed folk venture outside for more sherry. But in the last couple of years, it has become much more of an online event, and Boxing Day sales 2016 are going to be "the best yet".

That's according to an insider at one of the UK's biggest retailers who shared some plans ahead of the Christmas climax.

"Boxing Day sales have always been massive for the highstreet. It's a key period when brick and mortar stores can shift all of the unsold Christmas stock. That means certain product categories will see quite large discounts - apparel, shoes, toys and other gadgets you can probably guess yourself," says our source.

"In the last couple of years though, as the internet continues to grow its dominance in the retail space and with the rise of deals events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there's an increased appetite for online deals from consumers and a greater requirement from etailers who also want to reduce stock levels ahead of the new year. It's just my view but based on what I know I would say Boxing Day sales 2016 will be more of a thing this year than any year previously."

If true, the upshot of this is that all of the usual online retail suspects will resume the battle for your cash that really started at the beginning of November and won't finish until it's too late to get online goods delivered.

"You'll need to have your wits about you to get the best prices though," says our source in retail. "The good deals will be out there but don't be fooled by the big red sales logos - shop around to make sure you really do get the best prices."

What we expect from Boxing Day sales 2016:

Honestly we're not expecting "Black Friday in December" from the Boxing Day sales this year but the noises we're hearing do suggest it'll be worth waking up early and getting online to see what's out there.

Many of the big Boxing Day sales promotions will begin online on Christmas eve so if there's anything you want to buy for yourself it'll be worth looking early if you have the pre-Christmas energy.

TechRadar will be online throughout Christmas to help you find the best deals so if you do want to know about all the best Boxing Day bargains, come to this page and we'll point you towards the best discounts.

Boxing Day sales: everything you need to know

Boxing Day sales seem to start in September now. We're exaggerating, but only a little bit. Faced with the question of how their sales could stand out when everybody else was doing it, retailers decided there was only one solution: start before everybody else. In 2013, some retailers kicked off their Boxing Day and January sales the week before Christmas. This year they might have already started.

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Boxing sales 2016: online versus the High Street

Some retailers start their sales early, but only online - so you can expect to see some websites unveil deals on Christmas Eve that you won't be able to get in-store for another few days. And of course, online-only retailers from gadget emporiums to Steam are keen to get a slice of that sweet sales-frenzy pie, so they'll be running their own offers too.

Should I queue overnight for Boxing Day sales?

We wouldn't. So-called "doorbuster" deals tend to be very, very limited, and chances are you'll be way behind the organised eBay Tout Massive who know exactly what they want, what Buy It Now price they'll put on it and how to kill you with a single blow if it looks like you'll get to it before they do.

We'd recommend staying in bed until a reasonable hour, having a nice breakfast and then relying on a trusted technology website - hello! - to tell you where the best deals are online.

Will the Boxing Day sales deals be any good?

Yes, sort of, maybe, if you know what you're doing and watch out for the tricks of the trade. And there are quite a few tricks to watch out for.

The most common trick is what the Consumers' Association calls "pseudo-sales"; that is, sales that look like sales and quack like sales but that aren't really sales. They exist because of retailers sticking to the letter of the law rather than the spirit.

Here's how it works. UK law says that retailers can claim to have discounted goods provided they've been at full price for 28 consecutive days in the last six months, so some firms simply double their prices to ridiculous levels for a month, drop them back to normal again and stick a SUPER HUGE MEGA DISCOUNT sticker on them. That, amazingly, is perfectly legal, and it's why every single Christmas tree in the world appears to be half price in December: they were twice the price throughout August, when nobody buys Christmas trees (if you did, you were robbed. Sorry. Why are you buying Christmas trees in summer anyway?).

TechRadar will only be promoting genuine deals on the day so if you're unsure, check back with this page!

Here's our rundown of where you will find the best Boxing Day sales on tech and games from Christmas Eve through Boxing Day itself.