December 5, not 4, will be busiest online shopping day, says Amazon

While eBay U.K. predicts December 4 will be the busiest online shopping day of 2011, Amazon U.K. disagrees and expects December 5, or Cyber Monday, will produce the most online purchases of the year.

The first Monday in December has seen the highest volume of online orders for Amazon in recent years, with more than 2.3 million items purchased on December 6, 2010.

“Mondays remain the busiest shopping day in the run up to Christmas, but every day of that week will see high sales as more and more people have immediate access to shop online via home broadband and, increasingly, mobile devices," said Christopher North, managing director of Amazon U.K.

Amazon U.K. recently opened its Christmas store, offering best sellers and popular gift items to consumers through a convenient medium. The Christmas shop is expected to boost sales, especially on Cyber Monday.

Sears and Kmart stores are also offering customers special deals this holiday season. Customers can receive five times as many rewards points on qualifying purchases, which equals 5 percent back on items, when they use their Sears credit cards. Shoppers can use the cards in-store or online, and can choose to get extra rewards points back on purchases or use special deferred financing to pay for the items.