Retailers Report a Difficult Christmas

Consumers became much more concerned about new pressures on their personal finances in 2007, according to The British Retail Consortium (BRC). Shoppers have become increasingly averse to adding more credit to their bills as well as reporting a reduced confidence in the economy due to the global credit crunch.

Increased petrol prices, mounting council taxes and expensive groceries have made consumers evermore aware of daily economic constraints. Such financial pressures have been reflected in this years’ Christmas shopping trends.

In the week preceding Christmas the number of shoppers dropped by a marked 8% on last year. Throughout the festive period trade continued to struggle to keep up with last December’s year on year growth of 2.5%. Retailer Next does not expect a return to like-for-like growth in its stores until 2009. The shop has reported a drop in comparable sales of 3.2% in a large proportion of its stores.

Slow Christmas trade this year has been a result of an increased number of consumers shopping online to find products advertised at cheaper prices than the equivalent in the shops. Deeper discounts are expected to continue well into the New Year as retailers strive to attract their share of consumers.

Boxing Day revealed some of the largest price cuts for many years, and some websites even begun their winter sales on Christmas day as retailers vied for their share of the festive spending. An estimated 3.6 million people logged onto the net on the 25th December in a bid to find bargains.

January is expected to offer further widespread discounts to tempt shoppers off the web and into the stores. The BRC chief Kevin Hawkins says that we can expect more sales with large price cuts stretching well into the first half of 2008.