eBay is hosting the Social Shopping experience this weekend in London to coincide with what it predicts will be the biggest online shopping day of the festive season – 2 December – and its biggest mobile shopping day ever.

eBay expects 6m people to log onto its site on Sunday, with around 30 per cent of purchases made through smartphones.

eBay Social Shopping will draw together streams from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with its own search data, to provide visitors with an interactive picture of what the UK wants for Christmas.

Research commissioned by eBay found that 47 per cent of Brits turn to friends recommendations on purchases, including via social media. 23 per cent of people said they are planning to do Christmas shopping via smartphones and tablets.

Visitors also be able to see this year’s most sought after gifts brought to life using AR, image recognition and 3D technology. Ebay says that these technologies will give the UKs largest retailers a boost of £2.4bn by 2014.

There will also be an interactive advent calendar full of Christmas gifts which visitors can open to support the Good Gifts charity. One person will also walk away from the event an eBay Nectar Millionaire – winning 1m Nectar points, equivalent to £5,000.

Carrie Bienkowski, Head of Buyer Experience, said: “By pairing views of social communities with eBay’s own vast selection of top Christmas gifts and mobile expertise we hope to give shoppers lots of inspiration and put a little bit of fun into Christmas shopping.

“Mobile technology is a catalyst for retail growth and is changing the way we shop. Consumers now carry a global showroom in their pocket and are increasingly as inclined to seek recommendations online and shop mobile as visit the high street.”

In 2011, eBay transacted $5bn through mobile devices, an increase of 150 per cent from 2010. It is predicting that $10bn of purchases will have been made on mobile devices in 2012.

In the UK, an item is purchased every second on eBay using a mobile device.