A retail expert says Boxing Day spending is forecasted to be up 3.2% higher this year compared to last year. As shoppers make the most of Boxing Day sales in Oxford Street, London, Nathan Parsad-Wyatt adds, "online retail has its place, but nothing beats actually being here in the West End on a day like today". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Happy Boxing Day and it's going to be a busy day here in the West End.
00:03Our own festive forecast says that throughout November and December
00:07spend could be up to 3.2% higher this year than last year
00:11and that's topping £1.7 billion. So it's going to be a busy day today.
00:15Boxing Day is a big part of that and of course you can see from the crowds
00:18already that the excitement is building. Online retail has its place but it's
00:21pretty clear that there's nothing better than actually
00:24being here in the West End on a day like today.
00:27Retailers have had to be more competitive with what they're offering
00:30people in recent years and it's not just straight retail anymore
00:33it's leisure spend as well. So we've got everything from Mokko Museum just up the
00:37road there, a contemporary art museum. If you want
00:40to get spa treatments in Lush today you can do that too
00:43and of course there's other things like crazy golf and cocktails and
00:46another leisure spend as well and we think that one in every £5
00:50that's actually spent in the West End is now spent on those leisure activities.
00:53So you can't do all of that from your sofa so
00:56come down do some shopping and of course soak up all that excitement as well.