Shoppers shun Super Saturday despite huge price discounts

SUPER Saturday may be on the way out as a tradition, as fewer shoppers ventured out this weekend than in 2018, despite significant price reductions.

Footfall on the last Saturday before Christmas fell by 7 per cent, according to Springboard, the retail intelligence group. High streets suffered a decrease of 7.6 per cent, and retail parks 5.5 per cent.

Many stores had tried to tempt shoppers by offering huge reductions, with Topshop increasing its discounts from 40 per cent to up to 60 per cent. Jigsaw, Peacocks and House of Fraser all offered price cuts of 50 per cent.

By Christmas Eve, average price cuts are expected to top 50 per cent for the first time, according to Deloitte, which analysed more than 800,000 online and in-store products.

However, footfall on Saturday rose by 2.6 per cent compared with the previous weekend, suggesting that the last-minute Christmas shopping dash remains a trend among consumers.

Retail sales are suffering their worst run for more than 20 years, after falling 0.6 per cent in November, figures from the Office of National Statistics showed last week.

The month-on-month decline means that sales have failed to grow for four consecutive months for the first time since at least 1996.

Rhian Murphy, a statistician at ONS, said: “All main sectors saw their sales fall, with the exception of food stores.”

Diane Wehrle, the marketing director at Springboard, said: “The result for Super Saturday is surprising, given the lull in footfall over the past few weeks after Black Friday.

“However, it suggests that the success of Black Friday – when footfall rose by 3.3 per cent from 2018 – took far more steam out of the Christmas trading period than anticipated.

“In addition, given that there are three further trading days before Christmas, shoppers may be waiting until the final whistle before buying, in order to take advantage of further discounts that retailers may introduce in order to clear unsold stock.”