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63% of Shoppers Plan to Spend More This Christmas
Listed under: News
Published: Thursday, October 27, 2011
With the festive season looming and shops everywhere gearing up to grab all the Christmas custom possible, a new survey has revealed that despite difficult economic times, this year 63% of consumers intend to spend more than or the same as they did last year.
The survey released by BrandAlley questioned 2,000 shoppers in the UK, and will be welcome news for craft shop owners who may have experienced a challenging summer.
The survey also found that 70% of shoppers think that there will be significant discounts available before the traditional January sales and will be relying on these for their Christmas shopping, suggesting that stores which offer early discounts will perform well.
Speaking to CB, Val Chad from The Crafty Patch in Selsey has seen an increase in sales for Christmas already.
“People are buying lots of wool at the moment, especially to knit scarves for Christmas presents,” she says. “So far my sales are looking good and are slightly up on last year, which is always encouraging.
“I had a good summer trading period, and now that is starting to tail off and I'm relying on my locals to bring in some custom.
“We usually tick over quite well at Christmas and the run up to the festive season, it's January where we start to see sales slow and experience a bit of a slump.”
Val explains that the biggest resurgence area has been her haberdashery selection with fixtures and fittings flying off the shelves as the make-do-and-mend trend continues.
“Our haberdashery sales are well-up on last year, and more and more people are coming in to repair and mend things to save money, but also to be creative.
“I've also seen people buy worn-out items from charity shops and then bring them into us to see what they can buy to update them.”
The survey also found that 70% of shoppers think that there will be significant discounts available before the traditional January sales and will be relying on these for their Christmas shopping, suggesting that stores which offer early discounts will perform well.
Speaking to CB, Val Chad from The Crafty Patch in Selsey has seen an increase in sales for Christmas already.
“People are buying lots of wool at the moment, especially to knit scarves for Christmas presents,” she says. “So far my sales are looking good and are slightly up on last year, which is always encouraging.
“I had a good summer trading period, and now that is starting to tail off and I'm relying on my locals to bring in some custom.
“We usually tick over quite well at Christmas and the run up to the festive season, it's January where we start to see sales slow and experience a bit of a slump.”
Val explains that the biggest resurgence area has been her haberdashery selection with fixtures and fittings flying off the shelves as the make-do-and-mend trend continues.
“Our haberdashery sales are well-up on last year, and more and more people are coming in to repair and mend things to save money, but also to be creative.
“I've also seen people buy worn-out items from charity shops and then bring them into us to see what they can buy to update them.”
