Shoppers ready for big Boxing Day sales spend

SAVVY shoppers are set to spend more than ever in the Boxing Day sales - and mostly, online.

Experts have said that as retailers have had a disappointing build-up to Christmas so need to go all out to end the year on a high.

Stores in Cardiff are all ready to open on Boxing Day with rows and racks of discounted goods.

St David’s Shopping Centre, Wales’ biggest shopping centre, is open from 9.30am until 6pm for shoppers braving the sales.

Around one in three Britons (34%) will take advantage of the festive sales, up from 23% last year, according to Barclaycard.

VoucherCodes and the Centre for Retail Research also predict the Boxing Day sales will attract more than a third of the UK’s population, expecting them to spend a record £4.3bn – a 12% rise on 2016.

Barclaycard’s poll found months of “feeling the squeeze” this year is resulting in many consumers looking forward to the sales to ease their budgets.

Consumer appetite for the postChristmas sales period fell away last year after an extended period of discounting that began well before November’s Black Friday.

These discounts are putting a big squeeze on Cardiff’s retailers.

According to new research from Begbies Traynor, a UK-based independent insolvency firm, nearly 43,677 UK retailers were showing signs of “significant” financial distress as of December 19.

This is a 22% increase compared to last year, indicating the widespread challenges the sector is facing beyond the recent spate of high profile insolvencies.

Huw Powell, partner at Begbies Traynor’s Cardiff office, said: “Retailers have all but run out of time to turn around their ailing fortunes after a particularly disappointing few weeks of trading following the apparent success of Black Friday at the end of November.

“The increasingly frantic promotional and discounting activity we are seeing across the high street is simply not having the same effect on consumers as it once did.

“UK shoppers are savvier than ever and prepared to search online for the best deals, having grown wise to the gimmicks and discounts on offer in store, which many now realise may not be as good as they first appear.

“I fear UK retailers are now in the midst of a perfect storm, with November’s interest rate decision, rising inflation, falling real wages, reduced credit availability and increasing Brexit uncertainty all combining to put unprecedented strain on household budgets this Christmas season, pushing consumer confidence to an alltime low.”

Consumer expert Henry Enos from the University of South Wales Business School, says that austerity and online offers are making shoppers think smarter.

He said: “Over 90% of those with an iPhone will have it within arms reach of them over Christmas Day and some will start shopping Christmas day. We are more informed than ever with websites like Money Supermarket.”

“The people with the best marketing will now call Christmas. If you have someone who knows their market and are responsive to it they will be the winners. Consumers are now saying, ‘Give me what I want, how I want it.’

“The winners will be the ones with the best online offering and the best supply chain.

“When people are apprehensive they tend to go with what they know – it will be the known brands.

“The middle market brands will be hit. Marks and Spencers and possibly Debenhams in the middle will struggle.”