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From all of us at My Fashion Connect Global.

Have a festive and joyful Christmas season!

Festive decor in the Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong, December 2018. Photo by Alan Tyler.

 Deloitte reports record pre-Christmas discounts in the UK

According to Deloitte business services and research specialists, discounting during this pre-Christmas season is at record levels in the UK, having had analysed 800,000 products while revealing that discounts is on average around 44%, and possibly rising to 48% by Christmas eve, well ahead of the traditional clearance period.

Deloitte is expecting discounts to hit on average 52% from Boxing Day.

The experts feel that the recent mild weather has affected consumers' buying appetite for merchandise associated with the cold such as coats and boots, as well as knitwear which are traditionally desirable gifts.

 "We expect retailers to ramp up their discounting

 earlier than normal in an attempt to clear stock.”

Deloitte also said that the markdowns stores have applied as a result of the weak Autumn/winter 2018 season are spread "very wide" across the market.

Jason Gordon, Deloitte's lead consumer analytics partner, has reported that in recent years consumers have come to expect retailers to heavily discount products in the lead-up to Christmas which this year will fall on a Tuesday.  This means the shopping season will be shorter as consumers will use the preceding weekend to travel, thus resulting in potentially fewer crucial trading days for retailers.