You are here: News / Clever consumers finally hit high street to Bag a bargain
Clever consumers finally hit high street to Bag a bargain
Archived article dated Wednesday January 9th 2008
Having tactically held back from the High Street during the all-important pre-Christmas period, Britain's savvy shoppers were out in force last week, looking to grab a bargain amid the reams of deals and discounts available.
Following in the footsteps of last week, which saw a year-on-year increase in shopping visitors of 2.3%, the first recorded increase during the month of December, the latest figures from the Retail FootFall Index (RFI) for the first week in January show an increase of 0.7% on the same period last year.
Illustrating how shoppers are continually adopting the 'one stop for all' culture, choosing to bag as many bargains as possible under one roof, the Department Store Index also shows an increase in visitors to department stores of 4.6% compared to the same week last year. Martin Davies from Experian comments: 'Although the figures may initially suggest positive news for retailers, they may actually be losing potential profits because they have had to introduce sales and discounts in order to attract shoppers.
“Interestingly, while all of the pre-Christmas RFI figures showed drops in footfall, both of the last two weeks showed substantial increases. This supports the view that Britain is increasingly becoming a nation of savvy shoppers who are prepared to hold out during the Christmas period in the knowledge that retailers will have no choice but to discount heavily. Thus it would seem that in this year's longwinded stand-off between retailers and shoppers in the battle for a bargain, it is consumers who have won.”
“As people begin to slowly drift back to work and the first January credit card bills start to arrive, however, it will be interesting to see how long the sales can sustain shopper's attention for. It may suddenly become January blues for UK retailers.”
Tagged as: footfall | christmas shopping
Share this article:
Should your colleagues be reading the Retail Bulletin?
Let them know about us.
