No Christmas cheer for UK Retailers as savvy shoppers stay at home

Retail FootFall Index - UK National weekend 8/9 December 2007

Change for Saturday
Year-on-year (Saturday 8 December 2007 vs Saturday 9 December 2006): -7.5%

Change for Sunday
Year-on-year (Sunday 9 December 2007 vs Sunday 10 December 2006): -1.6%

It may only be two weeks until Christmas, but the weekend brought little festive cheer for UK retailers as consumers continued to shun the High Street, according to the latest figures from Experian® company FootFall.


Leaving little indication of the anticipated Christmas rush, the figures, which are taken from the company¡¦s Retail Footfall Index (RFI), show the year-on-year fall in shopper numbers growing steadily, as seasonal shopping surges look set to become more like a ghost of Christmas past.

Although Saturday was once the prime day for Christmas shopping, this Saturday shopper numbers were down 7.5% compared to the same day last year, as the heavy rain kept consumers indoors. While on Sunday the figures show a 1.6% fall, as some shoppers decided to brave the winter weather to enjoy some timely Christmas shopping.

Martin Davies from Experian comments: ¡§Due to a combination of improvements in online shopping and consumers become increasingly savvy, the peak Christmas shopping days have been gradually shifting to much later in December over the past few years.

For those who decided to avoid the bad weather and stay at home on Saturday, it is likely that they chose to do Christmas shopping online, especially as Internet delivery systems have improved greatly over the past few years, so that orders can be planned much nearer to the big day. While many experienced shoppers, who know that if they wait they might get a bargain, are simply resolutely holding out on festive purchases until the discounts arrive.

It is possible that the stand-off between retailers and consumers will mean that a massive shopping surge may not happen now until much closer to Christmas day.¡¨

10/12/2007