Retailers' warnings of a slow start to the Christmas shopping period have been backed by official figures showing sales growth were stagnant in November.
Mild weather, the rugby world cup and the high security visit of President Bush have been suggested as reasons for the slow growth. It has also been suggested that consumers are leaving their Christmas shopping even later this year.
Paul Clarke, national director of retail and wholesale at Barclays, said: “Last year December 23 was the busiest shopping day of the year as thousands left their Christmas shopping to the last minute. With Christmas Day falling on a Thursday we anticipate that a lot of people will be leaving their shopping well into next week.”
The Office for National Statistics has said that volumes rose by only 0.1 per cent in November after three months of strong growth and that supermarkets were one of the group's that had seen sales volumes drop.
Meanwhile, a Datamonitor report has suggested that consumers leaving their shopping to the last minute may be met with empty shelves. Over 60 per cent of retailers are relying on paper-based manual processes, which tend not to promote efficiencies and cost savings throughout the supply chain. This can ultimately result in delays to stock notification and the filling of shelves.
Tony Hart, Enterprise applications managing analyst at Datamonitor, said: “Over time, the major retailers and manufacturing hubs will try to integrate the larger suppliers into the value chain, but this will not be in time for Christmas, so expect the odd empty shelf.”
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