Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
A survey commissioned by House of Fraser reveals that we are a nation of keen Christmas decorators, eager to indulge in an ever expanding season of festivities.
According to the study of 1,000 respondents, 11% of women admit to buying new Christmas decorations as early as January, while 40% start to think about decking the halls as the nights darken in September.
The report shows that the north-east is the most willing region to get caught in the festive flurry, with 27% buying Christmas decorations before October – earlier than any other region.
Many of these Christmas decorators like to update their theme each year, with 8% buying into a totally new theme and 29% swapping in more on-trend decorations.
A competitive 27% of men strive for their decorations to be more impressive than friends and neighbours, compared with 11% of women.
Regionally, Londoners have the most competitive streak, wanting their decorations to be the most impressive. They are also most likely to leave them up the longest compared with the national average.
For design savvy under-30s, social media acts as a huge source of inspiration, with 25% taking to Pinterest for the latest decorating trends. This compares with almost half of over-50s looking to the high street to recreate store displays in their own homes.
The department store group’s head of home buying Kate Thompson commented: “The festive season is a vital time for us here at House of Fraser and due to the ever-expanding Christmas market, many retailers in the UK make more than 40% of their annual profits from this trading period.
“Last December we saw eager shoppers spend a massive £42.1 billion on the high street in the run-up to Christmas.”
House of Fraser operates in 59 locations across the UK and Ireland. The company completed its sale to Nanjing Cenbest in September 2014, marking a new beginning for the company under Chinese ownership.
The group’s record annual sales (ex-VAT) for 2015/16 were £1.3 billion. It employs 6,800 House of Fraser staff and 13,000 concession staff trading on over 4 million sq ft of selling space.
