Cyber Monday: bosses lose as staff Xmas shop at work

Online retailers believe today could be their biggest ever day of trading as consumers prepare to start spending their final monthly pay cheque before Christmas. But the start of the online shopping season is bad news for non-retail businesses, which face a massive decrease in productivity as office staff spend hours at their computers, shopping during work hours.

Visa reckons a total of £300m could be spent online today - Cyber Monday as some are calling it. Which is, of course, good news for Visa and other credit card companies.

But a survey by vouchercodes.co.uk suggests that what may be a big positive for the retail sector will come at the expense of reduced productivity in offices across the country. A survey of 3,000 workers found that 70 per cent admit to shopping for Christmas presents online during working hours.

Perhaps more surprisingly, 20 per cent of those surveyed said they will spend up to 10 hours per week on shopping online at work through December. This could mean a weekly loss to businesses of £1.4bn.

An account manager at a central London publishing agency said it was a wake-up call to businesses which should take account of workers' other priorities in the run-up to Christmas. "I won't be wasting as much time shopping online as some of my friends, because my company gives us each a free half day to go Christmas shopping," she said.