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The U.S. doesn't even celebrate Boxing Day, but in the U.K., it's quite a big deal; December 26th is often treated as a sort of second Christmas in terms of food-eating and gift-giving.  There are also huge sales, and Robin Goad reports that, as a result, Boxing Day was the U.K.'s busiest online shopping day in all of 2007.

"[I]t was busier this year than in both 2005 and 2006," Hitwise UK's Research Director writes.  "Indeed, the importance of the day after Christmas has been increasing steadily over the last two years."  American retailers, meanwhile, are probably plotting ways to introduce Boxing Day in our country; something that can beat out all those pre-Christmas weekends is quite impressive.

On that note, Goad later continues, "Another interesting thing . . . is the position of the pre-Christmas peak.  Last year it moved closer to Christmas as retailers put more effort into ensuring on time delivery and shoppers' confidence improved.  However, this year the peak moved noticeably back - to the last Sunday in November.  Maybe online shoppers have become more organized and are choosing to get their Christmas shopping finished before the December panic . . ."

In any case, it appears that Goad's post will be the last peep we'll hear out of Hitwise in 2007, so we'd like to wish all the company's employees a happy New Year.