Shoppers shunned the High Street for this year’s Boxing Day sales as people opted to stay at home and buy online.
Footfall was down by 4.5 per cent compared to last year up to 5pm, according to figures.
Black Friday sales also contributed to the decline, research group Springboard found.
Diane Wehrle, the group’s insights director, said that although a downturn was anticipated, "the scale of the drop is greater than expected."
She told the BBC: "What we have seen in the last couple of years is a structural shift in the Christmas trading period."
Ms Wehrle added: "The hotspots for Christmas trading around Boxing Day and New Year's Day are dissipating.”
Springboard said early indications showed a large rise in online shopping for the full 24-hour Boxing Day period.
It is expected that internet transactions would surpass last year’s figure, when they increased by 6.2 per cent.
Footfall on UK High Streets fell by 5.8 per cent, while in shopping centres, it tumbled by 4 per cent in the first 17 hours of Boxing Day.
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