Make or break for retailers this Easter
The Easter Weekend could be crunch time for retailers competing in tough trading conditions, with an expected fall in overall shoppers by between 4% and 5%.
With consumers feeling the pressure of personal debt and increasing household bills, confidence is at a low and is likely to affect overall Easter sales this year.
Natasha Burton, marketing manager at FootFall said “This year, key retail events such as Valentines Day and Mothers Day have given retailers some hope, although footfall levels have been down on the previous year and we are expecting the same trend to continue for Easter.
“Our figures from last year show that shoppers follow a certain pattern in their habits during this key retail time. Good Friday and Easter Saturday are the important shopping days for shopping centre and high street retailers, with increases numbers hitting the high street, buying last minute Easter presents, preparing for the long weekend ahead and getting essentials ready for relations visiting. Many retailers will be competing to get their share of these sales, with a number of stores already slashing prices to be able to compete against each other. Holiday Monday however belongs to the Retail Park sector.
“From past performance, the real winners this Easter will be retail parks. We are expecting an improvement with the weather over the weekend, which will give a welcome boost to retail parks and in particular garden centres and the struggling DIY sector. The statistics from our Retail Park Index shows that footfall levels in 2004 showed a significant build up in visitors culminating on Easter Monday with shopper levels up 41.7% on Good Friday, with people rushing out to get their gardens ready for the summer and taking advantage of the long bank holiday break to spring clean the home. The amount of people shopping on the high street however, decreased by the Monday by -13.8% in comparison.
“Overall predictions are that there will be winners and losers this Easter and those that haven’t planned well in advance are likely to suffer,”
