Promising Start to the Sales, Says SPSL
29 December 2006
Latest figures from retail analyst SPSL’s Retail Traffic Index™ show that the number of people out shopping on Boxing Day this year was 1.6% higher than on 26th December 2005. This marks only the second day this December when numbers have exceeded last year’s; the last time being on Saturday the 9th December when shopper numbers were up by 1.1% on the same Saturday last year (10th Dec).
Dr. Tim Denison, Director of Knowledge Management at SPSL and leading retail psychologist comments; “As promising as this news might be to retailers that opened their doors yesterday, we must resist jumping to any great conclusions just yet about the success of the Sales, or indeed people’s keenness to shop after Christmas.
“Despite many assumptions to the contrary, Boxing Day has never been an important day in the retail calendar. In fact if we look at the week-on-week figures (26th vs 19th December), the number of shoppers yesterday was still 19.6% fewer than last Tuesday. Many stores remained closed and are starting their Sales today, the 27th, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to know the wider picture on how the Sales generally are faring.
“What will be fascinating, once we are into the full swing of the Sales, is whether consumers are convinced that the after-Christmas Sales are much different from many of the events, secret Sales and special offers they experienced pre-Christmas. Or could it be that they were holding back in the final few days before Christmas waiting for the Sales proper, or could they be ‘shopped out’?
“Many retailers, with the general exception of the fashion sector, resisted discounting too heavily before Christmas, so preserving their margins. Whether or not this put off shoppers and whether we shall now see a post-Christmas surge to find bargains, is something that we’re all keen to understand. If the number of shoppers is subdued, more questions will be raised about the somewhat suspect strength of the consumer economy as we move into 2007.
“Retailing this Christmas was characterised, more than I can remember before, by its volatility and disparity. We all had expected Saturday 23rd to be the busiest day before Christmas, as numbers had consistently built day-by-day up to that point, but the shopper confounded us. Some retailers saw increases in their footfall over the Christmas period; some retail centres also saw increases, but it certainly wasn’t true across the board.
“Neither were trends consistent across or within sectors. Store strategies, also, were very varied with some retailers choosing not to discount at all, whilst others had 75% markdowns. The lack of a general pattern perhaps reflects the divergence that is developing across society in its economic well-being. On the one hand some are enjoying record bonuses in the City, on the other hand personal insolvencies are running at over 26,000 and bad debts are expected to reach £1.5 billion this year. This polarity may begin to explain the great disparity that we are expecting to see in the trading performances of retailers this year.”
ENDS
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.
SPSL would like to make it clear that the RTI is the only UK index that exclusively measures the number of shoppers actually entering stores as opposed to persons entering retail centres, where there may be stores as well as other non-retail premises and which may be accessed for a host of reasons other than in order to enter a store.
ABOUT SPSL
Established in 1989, retail research group SPSL is the largest European provider of proprietary tools for high accuracy customer traffic and behavioural analysis deployed by retailers. The company monitors more than 420 million visits to over 2,150 retail premises per annum in the UK alone. 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 mission-critical Key Performance Indicators to measure customer volume, sales opportunities, conversion rates, staff stretch, promotional activity and in-store lay-outs. Its data features regularly in serious trade and consumer media and it exclusively provides the UK Retail Traffic Weather Map as seen in Retail Week and on the Retail Bulletin website. Director of SPSL, retail psychologist Dr. Tim Denison is a frequent and popular commentator on issues relating to shopping for national and regional broadcast, print and online media.
Using SPSL systems, retailers are able to reliably measure customer traffic flow on an ongoing hour-by-hour basis as well as determine in-store ‘weather’, assess the impact of marketing initiatives, and tailor staff levels according to customer demand rather than service supply. The company owes its unrivalled reputation and success on the accuracy, dependability and specialist nature of both its data and its support services. It runs its UK and European operations from its head office in Milton Keynes, England and invests heavily in developing advanced behavioural analysis and tracking tools to create ever more beneficial trading results for its customers and ever more enriched shopping experiences for theirs.
STOP PRESS: SPSL wins GLA tender. From 24th July 2006, SPSL has been appointed as sole official supplier of footfall data to the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL). The GLA has entrusted SPSL with this critical task in order to have a truly accurate measure of the impact of the existing Congestion Zone and the proposed Congestion Zone western extension on shopper numbers in central London. SPSL is proud to enter into this relationship with the GLA and to have demonstrated once again the superior accuracy, robustness and reliability of its data.
ABOUT THE RETAIL TRAFFIC INDEX (RTI)
The RTI from SPSL is regarded as the national benchmark of retail shopper traffic flow. It is constructed using a nationally representative sample of over 420 million visits to over 2,150 retail premises per annum across the UK, excluding the grocery, convenience and minor retail service sectors. For further details and a full explanation see www.customercounting.com.
For PRODUCT information please contact:
Dominic McGuinness or Dr Tim Denison
SPSL
34 Walker Avenue
Wolverton Mill
MILTON KEYNES
MK12 5TW
Tel: +44( 0)1908 682700
Fax: +44( 0)1908 682739
website: www.customercounting.com
MEDIA enquiries to:
Theo Chalmers
Verve Public Relations
Park House, 8 Grove Ash
Mount Farm
MILTON KEYNES MK1 1BZ
Tel: +44( 0)1908 275271
Fax: +44( 0)1908 275272
e-mail: t.chalmers@vervepr.co.uk