It wasn’t all bad for retail this year. Here’s our seasonal celebration of how retail enhances lives and the nation.

Christmas is the most important time of year for many retailers. It’s also, of course, the season of goodwill. So what better time to recognise the contribution retailers make to communities and the country?

Jobs

Retail is Britain’s biggest private sector employer and provides almost 3 million jobs.

These are not just on the shopfloor of stores or at the checkout, but in almost every sort of role imaginable – from buying, property, technology and marketing, all the way through to chocolate-tasting.

Great value

The intensity of competition and retailers’ prowess means consumers can enjoy an ever-widening range of products and service at prices accessible to all.

November 2016 was the 43rd consecutive month of price deflation and Christmas this year is cheaper for shoppers than it was three years ago, according to the BRC-Nielsen Shop Prices Index.

Convenience

Holland and barrett click and collect locker

Holland and Barrett click and collect locker

Access to a wealth of affordable products is open to all, thanks to retailers’ efforts to make things easy for shoppers.

Whether it’s late-night opening in convenience stores, click-and-collect or delivery to the customer’s door, retailers are at consumers’ service 24/7.

Thriving communities

High streets and town centres reflect the health of an area, and many retailers, such as Boots, are active in town centre management groups that work to ensure such locations remain economically vibrant, attractive to visit and safe.

They play a vital role in keeping neighbourhoods lively.

Digital innovation

Argos

Argos

Argos has launched a new-look pop-up store inside The Centre:MK, in Milton Keynes.

Retailers have been at the forefront of technological advance, ensuring that digital opportunities are maximised for shoppers.

Whether it’s enabling smooth shopping on a smartphone, or creating digital hubs that help build technological expertise, retailers such as Sainsbury’s Argos and Shop Direct are pioneering change.

Backing Britain’s success

From the London Olympics in 2012, when John Lewis was a sponsor, to Rio in 2016, when Team GB was backed by furniture retailer DFS and value grocer Aldi, retailers always do their bit to support Britain – in just the same way as they do on trade missions designed to build economic links with new economic powers such as China.

Inclusivity

Retailers are increasingly making their stores accessible to all, and have introduced innovative ways of serving people with special needs.

Toys R Us, for instance, offers quiet shopping for families of children with autism, while Sainsbury’s is piloting ‘slow shopping’ for elderly and disabled customers.

And retailers are not just inclusive of their customers. Last year, for example, Marks & Spencer created 2,000 work placements for young people who face barriers to employment.

Fun

Selfridges_windows

Selfridges’ Christmas windows for 2016

Retailers have increasingly made their stores great places to visit and have enhanced the shopping experience in all sorts of ways.

Great retail names such as Fenwick, Harrods and Selfridges are not just stock repositories but great days out and destinations in their own right.

Selfridges was named best department store in the world a record number of consecutive times.

Support for good causes

Last year alone, Marks & Spencer raised £5.25m for health and wellbeing charities.

This month, Tesco customers donated more 2.8 million meals to people in need during the retailer’s Neighbourhood Food Collection – 41 million have been donated since 2012.

Sustainability

M&S has sent no waste to landfill for five years, and cut total waste by 9%

Retailers take seriously their responsibility to minimise their impact on the environment.

Marks & Spencer’s long-established Plan A programme is one of the most ambitious examples.

M&S has sent no waste to landfill for five years, and cut total waste by 9%.

Helping small businesses grow

Small businesses are central to the UK economy and many have been able to thrive in partnership with retailers.

Etailer Notonthehighstreet, for instance, said this month that 20 small British creative businesses have now reached the £1m annual sales milestone through selling on its site. Seventeen of them were founded and run by women.

Meritocracy

Retail opportunity is open to all, and the industry remains one in which people can work their way up from the shopfloor to the boardroom.

Steve Rowe, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, started as a Saturday boy.

The new John Lewis managing director, Paula Nickolds, joined the department store business as a graduate trainee.

At Retail Week we’ll carry on our own Be Inspired campaign, designed to encourage young women to rise through retail’s ranks by sharing the experience and insight of role models.

Here’s to a happy Christmas for retailers and a great new year, when this industry will continue to give back as much as it receives to the benefit of business and society alike.