New study reveals Sussex town among areas most likely to have overspent online at Christmas

The study, conducted by personal finance experts Wealth of Geeks, combined online search data from December 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

The average monthly search volumes for terms such as ‘Christmas presents for dad’ and ‘Amazon presents for her’ were considered per 100,000 people to determine the cities most likely to spend the most money online this December.

Crawley is the fifth-most likely area to have overspent this Christmas. In Crawley, there are 5,348 average monthly searches for presents-related terms per 100,000 people over the last four Decembers.

‘Gifts for him’ is the fifth-most popular term, with 94 average monthly searches per 100,00 people in total after ‘gifts for her’, ‘Christmas gifts’, ‘stocking fillers’ and ‘secret Santa’.

Derby is the city most likely to have shoped online over festive period. Over the last four years in December, Derby has searched for present-related terms an average of 6,306 times per 100,000 people.

‘Gifts for her’ is the most searched-for term in the city, with 475 average monthly searches in total.

The study revealed that Carlisle takes the silver medal. In the city, there were 5,916 average monthly searches for present-related items per 100,000 people over the last four Decembers.

Behind ‘gifts for her’, ‘Christmas gifts’ is the most searched-for term, with a total of 99 average monthly searches per 100,000 people.

Oxford is the third city most likely to have overspent this Christmas. In the last four Decembers, there were 5,755 average monthly searches for present-related terms per 100,000 people.

The city's second most popular term is ‘secret Santa’, with 155 average monthly searches, behind ‘gifts for her’ and ahead of ‘Christmas gifts’.

A spokesperson at Wealth of Geeks said: “This study highlights the areas expected to have spent the most online shopping during the festive season; Derby takes the crown with the highest average monthly search volume over the last four years in December, followed by Carlisle and Oxford.

“However, it interesting to note most areas mentioned in the study are based in the Midlands and South of England, suggesting that these areas might be more prone to overspend during the festive period.”