Pre-Budget Panic Inspired 130% Increase in Online Voucher Code Usage

After analysing visitor information, the UK’s leading voucher code website identified a 132% increase in visitors in the week leading up to last Wednesday’s Budget when compared to the weekly average.

Hundreds of thousands more consumers visited www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk from Monday 19th March to Wednesday 21st March 2013, showing a 132% increase when compared to an average start to a week.

MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, used by millions of people each month to save money on both essential and luxury purchases, has saved users hundreds of millions of pounds in recent years, offering online voucher codes, printable vouchers and mobile, GPS-based discounts.

The team noticed an unusual spike in traffic in the days leading up to Chancellor George Osborne’s annual Budget announcement, in what the site founder is calling ‘pre-Budget panic’.

As a result of the increase in traffic, a number of retailers benefited from increased searches. Here are the ten most searched-for retailers on MyVoucherCodes.co.uk in the 3 days leading up to the Budget announcement last week:

1. Lastminute.com – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/lastminute.com
2. Marks and Spencer – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/marks-and-spencer-m-and-s
3. Virgin Media – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/virgin-media
4. Sainsbury’s – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/sainsburys
5. Weightwatchers – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/weight-watchers
6. Thomas Cook – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/thomas-cook
7. Very.co.uk – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/very
8. Ocado – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/ocado
9. Lowcostholidays.com – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/lowcostholidayscom
10. Churchill Car Insurance – http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/churchill-car-insurance

Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, had the following to say,

“Holiday companies and supermarkets benefited last week from what appears to have been a pre-Budget panic shop, as hundreds of thousands more people sniffed out a bargain.

“On the whole, the Budget was very well-received, but general consumers are always wary of how the Budget might affect their finances and, as none of us can be sure exactly what it might include, it seems a number of people thought they’d save money where they could before the Chancellor could take it away from them!”