Shop early for Christmas this year.
A number of retailers are increasingly confident of having good sales this Christmas and will be avoiding the temptation to start sales before Christmas and won’t be discounting products this year.
Today Selfridges revealed soaring sales in their Christmas and toy departments. They said sales in their Panto themed Christmas shop, which opened on August 8, have jumped 52% year-on-year, with the average transaction value rising 33%. Mean while John Lewis managing director Andy Street has forecast that there will be less high street discounting during the crucial festive period. They expect that retailers will have carefully balanced their stock with the likely demand and therefore there won’t be surplus stock to be cleared through discounting.
It seems most likely that any sales or discounting will wait until Christmas Day online and Boxing Day in stores so that customers can take full advantage of the lower prices before VAT goes back up to 17.5% in the New Year.
The advice is to workout what gifts you need to buy and then buy them early or during October rather than leave it until the last minute expecting to pick up bargins. The chances are that with retails playing it safe after the recession popular gifts will sell out before Christmas, rather than them being left with stock for the New Year sales.