High streets facing bleak Christmas shopping outlook

SCOTLAND’S high street traders are being warned they face a bleak Christmas as online deals, early sales and higher interest rates keep shoppers away.

Even Black Friday – the last Friday of November, when shoppers’ salaries hit bank accounts and many retailers offer huge discounts – is predicted to be flatter than in previous years.

The warning comes as it emerged that traders have been hit by six consecutive months of decline. Footfall on high streets north of the Border dropped by 3.3 per cent last month – the worst October since 2011.

New figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium and analysts Springboard also show the downward trend has reached retail parks which have seen a decline of 1.3 per cent, the first drop in shopper numbers for nine months.

Shopping centre footfall is also down for the 10th month in a row.

The declining figures are set against a backdrop of vacant shops and consumer wariness over rising interest rates and inflation. Diane Wehrle, Springboard Marketing and Insights director, said October had delivered a “black trading cloud for Scotland” and warned of further difficult times to come.

“Not only was the 3.3 per cent drop in footfall the worst result for

October since 2011 when it declined by 9.4 per cent, but it was also higher than the result for the month of October in the previous three years,” she said.

“The signs of the gathering cloud have been evident in footfall trends for a while, with October’s result leading to the longest period of continual decline since November 2015.

“With possibly another two interest rate rises on the horizon, these results suggest that Black Friday and the subsequent Christmas sales storm will be typified by consumers battening down the hatches.”

Of Black Friday, she added consumers simply would not be as eager to spend because they had less money in their pockets and had already been spoilt for choice by a run of sales in recent months.