Shoppers still keep retailers guessing
Figures from SPSL’s Retail Traffic Index released today show that the Christmas mind game between consumers and retailers took another twist over the weekend.
On the back of a series of busier weekdays compared to last year, customer footfall across the UK on both Saturday and Sunday stalled and, amazingly, was even quieter than a week ago.
On Saturday, 17th December; footfall was down 4.4% against the equivalent Saturday last year and on Sunday, 18th December; numbers were down by 5.5% versus the same Sunday last year. Most remarkably, this last weekend, the final full weekend before Christmas, was even slightly quieter than the previous one. The RTI was down by 0.6% for the 17th/18th December compared to the 10th/11th – which itself had been only marginally up on the first weekend in December.
According to Dr Tim Denison, Director of Knowledge Management at SPSL; “Despite the continual twists and turns in this year’s Christmas retailing campaign, there is every indication that the festive season will ultimately leave both retailers and consumers happy. There is certainly no reason for retailers to be too anxious in their trading meetings today. Supporting SPSL’s latest figures, KMPG’s latest survey showed that 11% of respondents had planned to complete their gift shopping over the weekend, 5% fewer than the survey showed last year.
“The final results all hang on this week, now. We know from the KPMG survey that many more people this year stated they would be leaving the final shopping to this working week – ending Friday 23rd – (44% of respondents compared to 27% last year). So we believe that shoppers are delaying their final spend in anticipation of even more competitive offers on the high street. The unknown factor is how many retailers will oblige shoppers by declaring deeper selective deals or across-the-store discounts, or whether they will sit tight and wait it out.”
