Last minute shoppers should boost UK retailers
Christmas likely to be happy, says FootFall
December 25 2003
The number of shoppers across the UK country during the last few days before Christmas helped pull back some of the ground lost earlier in the month.
The FootFall Index shows that the number of people out shopping on Christmas Eve was only 0.3 per cent below the same day last year, fulfilling the prediction that consumers were leaving it to the last minute to do their Christmas shopping.
FootFall marketing manager David Smyth said: “I think everyone will agree that the last three days have been manic from a retailing perspective. We have been able to see that the level of shoppers out over the last three days has helped boost the figures and hopefully make Christmas a bit more positive for the retail trade.
“As we have been saying for a while now, the consumer has been in control of the purchasing cycle and left it right to the last minute to do their Christmas present shopping.”
While last week was down on the same period last year, a better comparison is the full seven days trading up to and including Christmas Eve.
Smyth said: “The last full seven days of trading this year are only 1 per cent down compared to the last full seven days of trading last year. This highlights how much extra activity there must have been in the last 3 days this week to turn around the deficit of last week.
“Whether this is due to money saving expectations hoping retailers will be starting sales closer to Christmas or just apathy at wanting to leave Christmas shopping to the last minute, we do not know. But one thing is certain the message is clearly that consumers are leaving it later than ever to their Christmas shopping.”
However, there are likely to be winners and losers, with electrical items such as DVD players having sold well, while clothing sales have been low.
The City also believes supermarkets including Tesco and Asda will be isuing strong post-Christmas trading statements.
Bryan Roberts of analyst M+M Planet Retail told the BBC: “Whether Christmas 2003 is good or bad depends on which sector you are talking about – it is pretty patchy out there.
“Electrical retailers and supermarkets seem to be doing very well, but some of the clothing retailers appear to be suffering. You can tell this from some pretty steep reductions at stores such as Marks & Spencer and French Connection.”
