A last-minute rush of shoppers is set to have rescued the Christmas performance of many retailers after shoppers flooded stores over the weekend.
One department store chief told Retail Week that trading was "incredible" on Sunday in stores across the country. Many shoppers left their spending to the last minute to take advantage of the heavy pre-Christmas discounts being offered by many retailers.
“After a very slow start, the Christmas rush finally kicked in in the last ten days of shopping," said BRC director-general Kevin Hawkins. “But a lot of that was driven by discounting - good for customers, but bad for those retailers that have seen their margins squeezed in a crucial month."
Hawkins said that overall sales will certainly be up on last year, but said that most retailers will struggle to surpass last December's like-for-like sales growth of 2.5 per cent.
No comments yet