Shoppers in control as last days of Christmas retail come to a close
A study tracking retail footfall in the run-up to Christmas has shown that shopper numbers climbed 12.4% last week compared to the previous week but were down on the final full week of Christmas trading last year.
The Retail Traffic Index, prepared by Ipsos Retail Performance, shows that Saturday 21 December was the busiest day of the festive period to date with footfall rising 3.7% on the same day in the previous week and by 21.9% from Friday 20 December.
However, the week was not as busy as the final full week of trading in the run-up to Christmas last year with shopper numbers declining by 3% on the week commencing 16 December 2012.
Dr Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance, said: “Shoppers’ behaviour this Christmas has tracked very closely to our expectations. Our data show that Christmas 2013 got off to a flying start, with shoppers eager to do some early gift buying, to take some of the strain out of Christmas at the end of a difficult year.
Never Miss a Retail Update!“Since then, while traffic has grown healthily week-on-week, there has not been the same clear water gap versus 2012. Shopper numbers are still stronger than December 2012 by 0.2%, but the margin is narrowing.
“We had expected the last weekend to have been busier than last year, particularly in light of the special events some retailers had launched, but it transpired to be 9.8% quieter. Only 27% of non-food stores recording year-on-year growth. Some had dubbed it ‘panic Saturday’, but I sense that shoppers felt well under control over the weekend. With one extra day’s trading before Christmas this year, some may have decided to keep their final trip to the shops until the start of this week instead, believing that prices are set to fall further.”
Around the regions the footfall picture was varied. The strongest improvement on last year’s shopper numbers was seen in Scotland and Northern Ireland, whereas London and the South East came bottom of the league as many of the capital’s workers left work early for Christmas and retreated elsewhere.
“There’s no such thing as a done deal in retailing”, added Denison. “Every Christmas campaign these days seems to go down to the wire and this year is proving to be no different. Retailers will be generally satisfied with the pre-Christmas footfall status, but their attention will already have turned to their post-Christmas Sales’ strategy. I believe we will see some radically different executions, dependent upon how well trading has gone before Christmas, left over stock levels and the buying plans for the Sales. It will be fascinating to see how the final week of the year maps out.”
Year-on-year footfall change: 24/11/13 – 21/12/13 vs 25/11/12 – 22/12/12
Scotland & Northern Ireland +7.6%
North of England +1.0%
The Midlands -0.9%
South West England & Wales +0.4%
London & The South East -2.4%
Week-on-week footfall change: w/c 15/12/13 vs w/c 8/12/13
Scotland & Northern Ireland +11.5%
North of England +16.4%
The Midlands -0.9%
South West England & Wales +0.4%
London & The South East +9.7%
