Christmas bargains are putting paid to Boxing Day sales

High street stores to stay shut on Dec 26 amid rise in Black Friday discounts

QUEUES forming outside stores on the 26th used to be a Christmas staple but this year many retailers’ doors will remain closed, as early discounts spell the end of the Boxing Day sales.

DIY retailer Homebase is the latest to announce it will keep its stores closed on Boxing Day, joining John Lewis, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, which will only open selected stores.

It comes as footfall is predicted to be higher on the Dec 27, 28 and 29 than on Boxing Day, according to the Springboard research group.

Hugh Fletcher, the global head of consultancy and innovation at Wunderman Thompson Commerce, said Boxing Day has become “less distinct”, with other sales periods overtaking it.

“Pre-end of year discounting has changed unrecognisably in the last decade,” Mr Fletcher said. “The introduction of Black Friday is of course at the heart of this, but in general, we have seen a shift of sales earlier in the year. Many retailers started Black Friday discounting in early November to ‘beat the rush’, while the retail giant Amazon started its ‘Countdown to Black Friday’ deals on Dec 18.

“This trend of continuous discounting since Black Friday means that Boxing Day is less distinct as many deals can be had now, preChristmas,” he added.

Glen Tooke, a consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said the prevalence of online shopping and discounts leading up to Christmas was “diluting” the importance of the Boxing Day sales.

“If you think back to five or so years ago you would have to wait until Boxing

Day to get some quite big discounts,” he said. “This year, some retailers are stating that they will not be opening on Boxing Day.”

This year, purchases on Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday, matched high street spending for the first time, making it the biggest online spending day ever. Some 12.5million Britons spent £1.5bn, beating the £1.41bn on last year’s

Cyber Monday, as well as previous Black Fridays and Boxing Days, said a Centre for Retail Research (CRR) study for VoucherCodes.

Springboard estimates – much to the agony of traditionally brick and mortar chains – that footfall in-store will fall 4.2 per cent over the crucial December period.

In-store sales in November were down 2.6 per cent on last year while online sales soared at 18.2 per cent higher, a BDO High Street Sales Tracker reported.

Nick Carroll, the associate director of retail research at Mintel, called the continued discounts in the lead up to the festive season the “Christmas creep” and said that with the “majority of the sector engaged in Black Friday, they don’t need to go in on Boxing Day”.

Jason Gordon, the lead consumer analytics partner at Deloitte, said the introduction of Black Friday had resulted in “a blending of promotions, one seeping into the next, and a steady price decline rather than a steep Boxing Day drop”.

But while the news is a blow to High Streets, it comes at the benefit of the consumer, with average retail discounts currently 45.5 per cent, according to Deloitte, meaning shoppers are able to pick up the same deal they might expect on Boxing Day, on Christmas Eve.