Christmas is unlikely to bring much relief to hard-pressed retailer with spending set to slump this year.
Consumers are set to spend £200m less that they did last year this Christmas according to retail research agency Decipher.
Total spend will dip 0.6% year-on-year with electrical retailer forecasted to have a particularly torrid time, with spending in the sector plunging 7.8%.
The analysts said a combination of the long term erosion of consumer spending power, higher retail inflation, low confidence and general uncertainty among shoppers will all combine to make this a far more muted Christmas for retailers.
Decipher lead consultant Matt Piner said: “It’s certainly true that people do like to put their worries to one side at Christmas. However, this year we believe that financial realities will take precedence over emotion. The truth is that the average household has seen disposable income slip by 2.1% over the past year. That will simply feed into lower overall spending.”
Piner said that the fall would be “more of a gentle slip” rather than dropping off a cliff.
Retail volumes are set to fall by 2.3% over the period. Non-food is set to see a sharper decline than food, despite retailers discounting to try and entice consumers into buying.
Non-food values will decrease by 2.2% and volumes will fall by 3% while food value is set to rise by 1.4% but volumes are set to dip by 1.3%.
Not all will be affected by the slowdown, however, Decipher predicts John Lewis, Amazon and Apple are likely to outperform and grow market share over the crucial trading period.
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