Bumpy Christmas Points to New Year’s Bargains

The final run-up to Christmas has been a bumpy ride for retailers, presaging a bumper Sales season according to the latest Retail Traffic Index (RTI) figures from analysts SPSL, now part of global market research company Synovate. For the week commencing Sunday 16th December, the Retail Traffic Index was down 8% against the same week of 2006, but up by 15.1% on the previous week.

The most heartening news of the week for retailers was that shopper numbers on Saturday 22nd were up by 7.2% on Saturday 23rd 2006 and by 5.6% against the previous Saturday. Sunday too was a much better day than last year, though many shops closed their doors early in the afternoon then, as it was Christmas Eve. Shopper numbers were up by 23.1% against last year and by 5.2% week-on-week.

SPSL’s spokesman, Dr Tim Denison said; “Last year the final weekend before Christmas was a wash-out. Everyone was expecting a last minute surge, but it simply failed to happen. The opposite is true this year: Saturday was a mega-day – the busiest shopping day of the year so far. Whether it was on the back of concerns over whether postal deliveries of gifts bought on the internet would arrive, or simply that people had left more of their shopping until the last minute; hoping for prices to tumble, we can’t say.

“It is true that the weekdays this last week were all disappointingly quiet, but the weekend results would have given back some comfort to retailers up and down the country. Although it’s likely that most retailers will now settle for the results, nevertheless, this has been such a topsy-turvy Christmas with no clear-cut trend developing, that most retailers particularly in fashion, shoes and big ticket items such as furniture and white goods will, more than likely, make significant deep-cut discounts after Christmas.

“Looking forward, therefore, we expect it to be a bumper Sale season. The 27th December may well turn out to be the busiest shopping day of the year, even busier than this last Saturday, but I don’t expect it to exceed the record-breaking day it was last year. Forecasts are there to be shot down, though, and in this lumps-and-bumps campaign, who would bet against it? Certainly it seems that consumers are happy to carry on with their spending spree a little longer.

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All enquiries for follow up or interviews with Dr Tim Denison should be directed to Theo Chalmers at Verve PR on 01908 275271 (weekdays) or 07932 004632.

About SPSL - now part of Synovate

Established in 1989, retail research group SPSL is Europe’s leading provider of proprietary tools for scientific footfall monitoring and behavioural analysis deployed by retailers. SPSL monitors more than 1.02 billion visits to over 4,600 retail premises per annum in the UK and currently operates in 14 European countries and in North America. Its customers include many of the retail industry’s most successful companies across all retail sectors except grocery, convenience and minor retail service sectors.

SPSL is trusted by retailers to provide high accuracy, mission-critical Key Performance Indicators to measure customer volume, sales opportunities, conversion rates, staff stretch, promotional activity and in-store lay-outs.

In December 2007 SPSL became part of Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc. With over 5,700 staff in 115 cities across 51 countries, Synovate provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions.More information on SPSL can be found at www.customercounting.com; on Synovate at www.synovate.com.