Victory Corp Charts

Busy tills ring in the end of 2004
By Elizabeth Rigby
Published: January 2 2005 17:20 | Last updated: January 2 2005 17:20

The final trading days of 2004 saw a healthy rise in shoppers visiting stores to pick up post-Christmas bargains, offering retailers a final chance to make up sales numbers ahead of the reporting season that kicks off this week.


Footfall, the retail research body, said on Sunday that the number of shoppers visiting stores in the six days to December 31 was up 7 per cent on the previous year. The increase came despite a 5.9 per cent fall in shoppers last Monday, the first proper day of the post-Christmas sales.

SPSL, another body that measures customer flows, recorded a 2 per cent rise in the five days to December 27.

"This will be some comfort to retailers," said SPSL. "It was a busy week last year, so this is not bad."

While the number of people entering stores does not automatically translate into sales, retailers will be relieved to see an uptick in shoppers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the crucial Christmas period - where retailers hope of make most of their annual profit - has been tough. Many were forced into heavy discounting and pre-Christmas sales days to boost turnover.

Over the next couple of weeks investors will get a more accurate picture of how Christmas went as listed companies update the market on December trading performance.

John Lewis, the unquoted depatment store, has already unveiled some good news. Last week, it said its first three days of clearance showed an 11 per cent rise in sales compared with last year. It will provide a further update on its winter sales today.

Richard Hyman, chairman of Verdict Research, said he was sticking to his prediction that the public will have spent a record £75.8bn over the Christmas period - a rise of 3.9 per cent on last year on the back of cheaper gifts and wage growth.

"It has not - as lots of people are saying - been the worst Christmas in 25 years," Mr Hyman said. "What it has been is a Christmas that has been intensely competitive and pretty disappointing. But then retailers will always look to sell more at a bigger margin."

Meanwhile, other pockets of the retail world have seen a strong uptick. Verdict has forecast online sales of £2.6bn for the final three months of the year, with December alone netting £810m.

That is a 44.5 per cent increase on last year.

The Interactive Retail Media Group is anticipating an even bigger online spend over the festive period of £4bn.