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Christmas shopping sluggish, expected to pick up

by Scott Bicheno on 9 December 2009, 13:05

Tags: Synovate

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Playing chicken

UK retail sector tracker Synovate has revealed that retail footfall for ‘Christmas week one' - commencing 29 November - was down 4.1 percent compared to the equivalent period a week ago.

The feeling is that shoppers are increasingly expecting bargains to appear as we get closer to the big day and a game of chicken between retail and consumers is being played out. However, it looks like retail inventories have been tightly managed this year, so shoppers may be disappointed with the lack of deals on offer further into December.

"The trend to progressively later gift-shopping in the run-up to Christmas is well documented now; except that last year the surge could not have been left any later, which suggests these latest figures are a reflection of genuinely subdued shopping build-up," said Dr Tim Denison of Synovate.

"Despite the slow start, our forecast of a 1.8% rise in footfall on last year for the month as a whole is still on track and a solid Christmas is still on the cards. We believe that it is a matter of delay tactics rather than an indicator of decline in demand per se. The first week has been a little slower than retailers would have liked, but the 7.5% rise on the previous week is not insignificant and shows that Christmas is on its way."

Things seem to have got off to a quicker start in the US, however, with the same week showing a three percent increase on a year ago, according to comScore. Here's their table showing the comparative stats for the holiday season so far.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Well I've been spending my posterior off! I'm pretty much done now, though.

Play and Amazon have done pretty well out of me this year!
Aye. Also Scan, Amazon, EBuyer and OcUK.
With no job past 28th Feb things have slowed down a tad. But….if I can land a new job, there's a redundancy cheque which really does have my name on it. :mrgreen:
As a family we decided that we would rather spend money on a big get together than loads of presents this year.
We've all agreed £10 max for each present and only 1 for each person, any additional or left over money is to go on food, alcohol etc…

Thank god I do not need to trail round the shops this year, firebox has pretty much sorted me out.

If the spree picks up its certainly not my family!
Im from California..

Enjoy your Xmas vacation with your family