Retailer’s banking on 'Super Saturday’ boost

Shoppers are expected to spend 1.65 billion pounds on ‘Super Saturday’ (December 22), as they finish off buying presents in preparation for Christmas Day.

According to new research from Centre for Retail Research commissioned by VoucherCodes.co.uk, 10.1 million people will hit the UK’s high streets on ‘Super Saturday’ to buy last minute Christmas gifts, taking advantage of all the early promotions.

The research predicts that shoppers will spend 1.38 billion pounds on gifts, as well as festive food and drink, while 4.8 million consumers will spend 268 million pounds online in the hope that their purchases can be delivered in time for Christmas, taking advantage of Christmas Eve falling on a Monday for deliveries.

Two of London’s biggest shopping centres, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City have stated that the final weekend before Christmas is always a “bumper trading weekend” and like last year retailers will once again benefit from a full weekend of trading before Christmas Day.

Last year the two centres welcomed 800,000 visitors and they are expecting a similar if not more this year, following the 600 million pounds expansion at Westfield London including John Lewis and Partners and Primark, transforming Westfield London into the largest shopping centre in Europe.

Myf Ryan, chief marketing officer Europe and group director of brand and strategic marketing for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said in a statement: “This year, ‘Super Weekend’ comes immediately before Christmas Eve, representing three full days for shoppers to pick up those last-minute presents or indulge in some self-gifting. We predict December 22, the last Saturday before Christmas, will be our biggest shopping day of the whole year.”

ShopperTrak predicts ‘Frenzied Friday’ will start a bumper last weekend of shopping before Christmas

Retail analysts ShopperTrak, also added that ‘Frenzied Friday’ (December 21) will mark the switch from online to in-store shopping, as Christmas shoppers head to the high street to finish off buying festive gifts.

With ShopperTrak predicting that UK shopper traffic will rise by 20 percent on the daily average on ‘Frenzied Friday’ as well as ‘Super Saturday’, with both Sunday, December 23 and Christmas Eve expected to see a 5 percent increase in footfall.

Steve Richardson, UK and MEA director at ShopperTrak, said in a press release: “Friday is also significant in that it marks the moment that shoppers move away from buying online and instead head into stores to finish off Christmas shopping.

“In spite of retailers offering later and later fulfilment options, shoppers will head on to the high street, fuelled by the fear that online gifts may not arrive in time for the big day, as well as taking advantage of click-and-collect orders, which some retailers are promising to fulfil on Christmas Eve itself.”

Where will the Christmas spending go? According to analysis from the British Retail Consortium with Centre for Retail Research, most spending on gifts last year went towards clothes and footwear, with an average of 53 pounds per household, while food sales made up to around 44 percent of spend in December 2017, with the rest going to non-food products and they are expecting a similar pattern this year.

They also predict that more Christmas gifts than ever will be bought online this year, as consumers are becoming more “accustomed to online retail at the same time as improvements in delivery services and click and collect are enabling more online shopping well into the final week before Christmas”.

In the run up to Christmas last year, the proportion of spending online on non-food products expanded from 23 percent in October to more than 27 percent in November, and more than 24 percent in December. October 2018 saw online capture nearly 28 percent of sales of non-food products, indicating that online penetration could pass the 30 percent mark in November 2018.

The Office for National Statistics saw over 78 billion pounds spent in December and November last year, and according to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, sales growth for the year to date has averaged 1.4 percent. The British Retail Consortium is expecting November and December to grow at a similar rate, which would mean total spending of almost 80 billion pounds this festive period.

Image: courtesy of Shaftesbury and The Mercers’ Company of St Martin’s Courtyard