Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Latest figures from Ipsos Retail Performance in the run-in to Christmas show shoppers have been out in force early this year.
For the week commencing November 24, the Retail Traffic Index (RTI) – a barometer of the number of shoppers entering non-food stores – stood 4.4% higher than the same week last year and 12.5% higher than the previous week.
“As we had forecast, Christmas shoppers leapt out of their blocks earlier this year,” comments Dr Tim Denison, Director of Retail Intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance.
“After such a wearing year, consumers are keener than ever to reduce the normal Christmas stresses and strains. This has manifested itself in the way they are putting extra effort into planning and early preparation for the festive period including doing some early Christmas shopping. Retailers are also playing their part by offering early bird bargains.”
All UK regions saw strong week-on-week acceleration in footfall growth. Wales and the south-west was the only region not to record year-on-year growth during the week, following on from its weaker performance in November.
