British consumers will increase spending by about 4 percent in December, with online sales set to account for half the market’s growth over the important holiday period, according to forecasters at Deloitte LLP.
The forecast, published today, adds to signs that U.K. shoppers are set to loosen their purse strings at Christmas as a six-year squeeze on consumer spending eases and the jobless rate holds at its lowest level since 2008. A survey released last week by researcher IMRG showed online retailers are more confident of growth in holiday sales than last year.
“Digital is also going to play a key role in in-store sales this Christmas,” Deloitte said in a report. So-called click-and-collect sales, where shoppers order online and collect their purchase from a store, are set to almost double to about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.9 billion), it estimates.
Online spending will account for about 13 percent of December sales, up from 12 percent a year earlier, according to the advisory firm. Deloitte sees Britons splashing out 42.4 billion pounds in total next month, an increase of more than 1.5 billion pounds on December 2013.
The forecast comes at the start of a week when U.K. retailers are gearing up for a spate of Black Friday promotions as the U.S. phenomenon gains traction on the other side of the Atlantic. The Bluewater shopping mall in southeast England expects the coming weekend to set records for sales across all its brands, it said in a Nov. 21 statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment