Over a third of shoppers plan to increase their spending over Christmas, despite Brexit anxieties. New research from shopper marketing agency Savvy has found that UK consumers are less affected by looming inflation than many predicted, with over a quarter expecting to shop online on Christmas day.
Change to consumer confidence appears to have remained minimal since the referendum, and Christmas sales are expected to continue a trend of growth in light of new Office for National Statistics figures revealing a 0.5 per cent growth in retail sales in November.
Nearly three out of every four shoppers will favor one of the Big 4 when doing their Christmas shop this year, with just 13 percent favoring discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Despite shoppers sticking to pricier grocers, with six per cent using a premium food store, 84 percent of shoppers admitted to looking for better bargains over the festive season. A further 64 per cent stated they would shop around in order to find the best food deals.
Meanwhile, online shopping continues to rise, as just over half of consumers state they’ll be doing most shopping online this year. This is reflected in figures from Colliers International which reveal that the UK is the largest e-commerce market in Europe with annual revenues of around £130 billion.
A more surprising result of this trend is that 78 per cent of those over 65 are now shopping online, marking a significant shift in traditional shopping behaviors as the online focus moves away from millennials.
Barry Hopkins, Managing Consultant of Digital says:
“It’s great to see confidence on the high street this Christmas, it comes as no surprise that this has continued as consumers traditionally love to splash out over the festive season regardless of economic uncertainty. With the growing ease of using mobile technology combined with user-friendly retail apps has helped the diversity of shoppers using these channels combined with their traditional trips to the high streets that we all love.”
