Easter egg shoppers turn to online amid lockdown

Online sales of Easter eggs are surging as UK consumers turn to the internet during the coronavirus lockdown.

Easter is big business in Britain. In 2019, consumers spent £1.1bn on buying items to celebrate the festival, according to research firm Mintel, with £206m of that spent on Easter eggs alone.

But with the coronavirus lockdown preventing families and friends from meeting up to celebrate and Easter egg hunt activities cancelled, are consumers still spending as much this year?

Chocolate store chains Hotel Chocolat and Thorntons have had to close their shops, but both told the BBC that they have seen a “dramatic increase” in online orders since the lockdown started.

A spokeswoman for Thorntons it had seen “a significant increase in online orders”.

“Demand is four times higher than average – and we have received approximately one million visitors to our site this week,” they added.

Hotel Chocolat said online sales were up 400% with web traffic quadrupling.