Channel looks to cash in on £500m-plus e-tail weekend

UK Christmas shoppers prepare to spend half a billion pounds in 48 online hours

Top security vendors are among those firms hoping to cash in on the year's biggest weekend for online retail, with half a billion pounds set to be spent inside two days.

Market watcher IMRG has christened 5 and 6 December "Super Sunday" and "Mega Monday", with the latter predicted to be 2010's busiest day for e-commerce. Across the two days, the UK public is expected to spend more than £500m.

The heightened Christmas-related spending began in earnest last month, when about £6bn was spent online. A further £6.4bn in spending is projected for December.

Software vendors Adobe, Kaspersky and Panda Security are among those looking to make hay, with all three launching sales promotions to tie in with Mega Monday.

A survey from eDigitalResearch reveals 26.6 per cent of the UK population is expecting to do more online shopping this year than last. This week alone 45 per cent of online UK adults will splash the cash on the internet, with more than a quarter of us shelling out more than £200, according to figures from YouGov.

On the first Monday in December last year, e-tail giant Amazon.co.uk processed about two million orders - equivalent to 23 per second.

This year one big-name player hoping to enjoy a fruitful festive season is US resale titan Best Buy, which is spending its first Christmas in the UK market.

Andrew Brem, multichannel and services director for Best Buy Europe, said: "We're expecting demand for free-motion and 3D gaming, Samsung GalaxyTab and Apple iPad tablets, as well as home theatre and entertainment products, to be brisk."