Christmas Shopping daze...

Written on: 23 December 2011

So the Christmas frenzy has nearly come to end but has the shopping only really just got into full swing?

Retailers this year have reported that the last 2 weeks are vastly up on this time last year but the previous weeks were much worse than they hoped, for some at least. We believe there are several contributing factors to influence this, the economic uncertainty, the weather being much warmer, that extra Saturday prior to Christmas day, which has delayed the approach to Christmas shopping, people feel like they have an extra weekend to shop, and of course most importantly retailers track record of discounting earlier and earlier before Christmas Day.

It is very disappointing to get your shopping done in advance only to find the same items 30-50% off only 2 weeks later, you may not necessarily find exactly what you're after just before Christmas but your money goes much further which is hugely appreciated in these difficult times.  This year retailers had become to fear this would be a bad Christmas, particularly with turbulence in Eurozone, Public Sector strikes, government cuts taking their toll, riots; 2011 has been a turbulent year, however, have the past few years of uncertainty changed the way Christmas will be seen forever by retailers and shoppers alike?

Shoppers are savvy, the internet has taught us that much, especially with the introduction of scanning systems for the likes of Amazon.  Morally there is something wrong about standing in a store and scanning the item in your hand then finding it cheaper online nevertheless every penny counts and retailers know this more than ever, otherwise why discount so much before Christmas?  Will there be any profit left for the once traditional "January sales"?

We feel 2012 is going to be another interesting year for the world of retail and like last year location, the right size of unit, footfall and flexibility are going to play a huge part in the Shopping centre market.

From all at Plus Shops we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012, in the words of Band Aid 'let's hope it's a good one for all'!

< Return to our list of Articles