In the four weeks leading to December 25, more Ghanaians did their Christmas transactions online. Total items put up for sale online grew up by 9% in December compared to the previous month.

Purchase trends however indicate that consumers started trading heavily in November in anticipation of the Christmas festivities. Online sales in November was 19% above October figures, the fastest month-on-month growth rate in 2013 whilst sales on traditional markets slackened due to the general economic downturn.

The data, from online classifieds website Tonaton.com, showed that online trading in personal items, leisure, sports and hobby posted positive growth in December 2013. These categories have grown by 289% and 88% respectively since mid-2013.

Tonaton.com Marketing Manager, Kwabena Opoku-Boakye said he was satisfied with the result. “It is broadly in line with what we expected and even slightly better because online trading is a new area in Ghana. It looks like more people clicked into Christmas than ever before, with online personal items, leisure, sports and hobby putting in a good performance since we started operations in Ghana,” he said.

Winners this Christmas were individuals who were looking for fast and easy means of disposing off unwanted items for cash to buy stuff for Christmas.

Mr. Adomah, a regular online platforms user sharing his experience in online trading activities during last Christmas said “I really wanted to surprise the family with a washing machine this Christmas but the money that I had could not buy the Bosch washing machine I wanted. I therefore posted my old Trojan treadmill on Tonaton.com and got a buyer in five days. I added the money from this sale to what I already had and bought the washing machine on the same platform. My family was so happy because that was the only present they wanted for Christmas”.

Esi is a housewife who did fashion designing in school. She occupies herself with creating new clothing lines at home and uploads them on online platforms. She says business during the Christmas period was very encouraging due to the number of transactions she undertook online.

"I experienced a respectable result overall and will be pushing more clothing online. The prospects in doing business online are so high now and I don’t know whether I can still call myself a housewife.” She adds with a broad smile, she added.

Prospective buyers using online platforms were also very happy since they had the option of meeting up with sellers at designated locations to undertake the transaction.

Aboagye bought number of clothes for his kids online and said “I finally did not have to travel long distances in the heavy Christmas traffic to buy a T-shirt or a pair of shoes for Obrempong”