Retailers upbeat about Christmas trading
A majority of retailers feel Christmas will be as good as last year,
despite the financial pressures of the last 12 months and the recent
disruptive snowfals.
The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) Christmas Trading Snapshot
Survey published earlier this week shows almost two thirds of retail
businesses responding expect sales to be the same or better than last
Christmas (same 29%, better 35%), although 36% are braced for figures to
be down. Stores are offering exceptional numbers of promotions and
discounts to customers, 41% providing more than last year.
71% of retailers think the January rise in VAT to 20% means customers
are bringing forward purchases, and more than eight out of ten expect
the VAT change to have a negative impact on sales in January.
Stephen
Robertson, British Retail Consortium director general, said: “It’s
reassuring to see a majority of retailers believe Christmas sales will
be at least as good as last year even if a third say they will be worse.
But, considering inflation is now at 3.2 per cent, growth of anything
less then that would be a real-terms fall."
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