Shift to online shopping will help boost Christmas sales

Christmas sales are more important than ever for the country’s struggling retailers. The pandemic has battered the high street with thousands of businesses being bankrupted by the lockdown. Thomas Pink, the shirtmakers, is the latest household name to be put up for sale following the collapse of others such as Top Shop and Debenhams.

Sales in November and December make up more than a fifth of the year’s total retail sales, according to the ONS Retail Sales Index. Last year the Brits splurged an astonishing £48 billion on Christmas, more than the UK’s entire defence budget. But this year’s lockdown in November and tier restrictions in December have made it even more difficult to shop for the festive period.

However, the British Retail Consortium, while cautious about whether sales this year will match the last in terms of total sales throughout the year, is optimistic about a big Christmas spike. A BRC spokesman says they expect that December will see significant growth, particularly due to the release of pent-up demand from the November lockdown in England.

Retailers are even reporting a return to some sort of normality in Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road with long queues in many shops as customers catch up with the remnants of Black Friday cost-cutting deals and Christmas shopping. Social distancing, of course, makes the queues seem longer than perhaps they are.

Similar busy scenes have been witnessed elsewhere across the country. Figures from the retail analyst Springboard show that twice as many people visited the high street last Saturday than the previous one.  Shopping centres in London’s West End saw footfall increase by more than 140% over the same period.

However, the totals still remain lower than this time last year. When asked if Christmas sales would compensate for lost sales throughout the rest of the year due to the pandemic Andrew Goodcare, CEO of the British Independent Retailers’ Association, said “In all honesty no. November and December are the two most important months, and having missed out on November, many so-called non-essential shops will have a worse time than last year overall.”

Online retail shopping is the big winner. Last year online shopping made up about 20% of total sales but this year is forecast to be as high as 50%. For many people either living within strict tier areas or for the vulnerable who fear leaving their homes, online shopping has become the only way to shop.  This shift to deliveries is having a big impact on many retailers which have not been able to gear up on time. Debenhams’, which is having a closing down sale, had to close its website shop working earlier this month as it struggled to keep up with demand.

Even the Royal Mail, which saw the volume of parcels grow by 51% in the first half of this year, is struggling to keep up despite setting up temporary sorting centres and hiring 33,000 temporary staff. Shoppers are being advised to “to shop early and send early for Christmas” in a bid to avoid delays later in the year.

After a bitter year, most people are preparing to pack in some festive cheer. Retail analysts say the biggest increases on spending will be on music, films, and books across the country. Amidst the literal and metaphorical gloom of this month country people will be curling with what family they can muster immersing themselves in escapist pleasures.