Finger-tip tech and retro chic — how we’re shopping in 2017
Christmas is about sharing and caring — but it’s also when our shopping habits come into sharper focus than Santa’s Satnav specs.
While we tighten our belts for the rest of the year, the festive season’s set to light up our credit cards like molten plastic — so let’s take a look at exactly what we’ve been buying in 2017.
Online vs high street
In some parts of the UK, Black Friday used to be the last working day before Christmas.
It involved millions of pent-up workers stampeding into pubs at lunchtime, only to be scraped off kebab shop floors by 5pm.
But this fine tradition’s been usurped by the American version of Black Friday — where hordes of desperate shoppers trample each other to bag cut-price TVs.
It’s become a warm-up for Christmas in the retail trade and Brits spent £1.4 billion this year, up 11.7% on 2016.
The figures weren’t so cheery on the high street and in shopping centres— with 3.6% less footfall due to the convenience and choice of clicking online.
The same pattern will likely repeat itself on the lead up to Christmas —when the streets are cold enough to freeze the bauble off an elf’s bendy hat, shopping from home’s all the more attractive.
Christmas Day
If you’re planning to spend Christmas evening camped outside your favourite shop to be first in the queue for a Boxing Day sales bonanza, don’t risk frostbite — the same bargains are probably available online on Christmas Day.
In 2016 we stopped tucking into our turkeys and unglued our eyes from Her Maj’s moving message for long enough to spend a whopping £800 million online on the 25th December — proving that when it comes to spending, no holiday is sacrosanct.
So if you didn’t get the dinosaur costume you requested again this year don’t worry — a crafty post-dinner Crimbo click can ensure it wings its way to your door in two clicks of a T-Rex’s claws.
So what do our Christmas spending habits tell us about marketing?
- Shoppers increasingly prefer the convenience and choice of online retail — if your firm isn’t geared up for ecommerce you’re missing out.
- The festive shopping season has extended further than ever — savvy retailers can hit sales hotspots straight through from Black Friday to Boxing Day and beyond.
- Retro gifts are still popular — for kids from six to 60.
For more Christmas content & the chance to win some prizes take a look at our 2017 Advent Calendar.