With online sales generated by physical non-food and food stores
estimated to hit £5.4 billion, combined with the £5.6 billion generated by
internet pure players, Mintel expects total online sales this December will
be worth £11 billion.
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| Caravane, one of the upmarket retail shops in Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross, London |
Richard Perks, Director of Retail Research at Mintel, said:
“We think that retailers can look forward to a reasonably good
Christmas—not outstanding, but it won’t be bad either. While there are some
reasons to be cautious, such as falling consumer confidence, there is no
real sign of an underlying slowdown in retail sales growth. Retail sales
have held up well this year and we expect the recent momentum is likely to
be maintained, with retail sales growing at about 4% both in the final
quarter of 2018 and in December itself.
“While there’s been much talk of how the High Street is being
undermined by online retailing, it still only represents a relatively
small part of overall retail sales, with most shopping still taking place
in physical stores.”
Black Friday still stokes interest, but most Brits think discounts are
overhyped
Black Friday is now well and truly entrenched in the shopping
calendar. According to Mintel research, last year nearly six in ten (57%)
Brits browsed for goods during Black Friday promotions, while 41% made a
purchase during the event. It’s proving a big hit with the nation’s 25-34s,
of whom 75% said they browsed for goods and 62% made a purchase.
While Black Friday has been synonymous with scenes of crowding
bargain hunters, last year just 16% of Brits engaged with the event
in-store, with the majority of shoppers engaging online (56%).
Electrical goods were the most popular purchase, bought by 51% of
Black Friday consumers in 2017, followed by fashion, which was purchased by
42% of these consumers.
Overall, half (51%) of last year’s Black Friday shoppers said the
majority of the purchases they made during the promotions were Christmas
gifts. Meanwhile, a savvy six in ten (61%) Black Friday shoppers said they
waited for the Black Friday promotions before making a purchase. However,
despite the hype, some cynics remain as 66% of 2017 Black Friday shoppers
felt the discounts were not as good as they’re made out to be.
“While Black Friday has become a high profile retail fixture,
retailers do run the risk of bringing forward festive spending, but at
discounted prices. There is always a fear of missing out, so the actual
outcome is the big unknown for how the retail sector will perform this
Christmas. Given some evidence of growing disillusionment among shoppers
for Black Friday, Mintel predicts that retailers would like to pull back
from promotions for this event. We think that this year’s event will be no
bigger than last year’s, and that means good news for the amount of money
left over to spend in December.” Concluded Richard.
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