London Christmas shopping to top 15 billion pounds

A record 85 billion pounds is forecast to spent in the run-up to Christmas, with London retailers expected to see the largest spend of 15.5 billion pounds.

The average Londoner spends 1,745 pounds preparing for Christmas, the highest in the UK compared to the national average of 1,275 pounds.

Figures from VoucherCodes annual Christmas report show year on year spending in London is up 4.6 percent, significantly below the average growth rate of 6.3 percent.

Spending on gifts

In total, the UK is expected to spend 12.44bn pounds on gifts alone this, a rise of 6 percent compared to 2020 (11.73bn pounds). However, despite this significant increase, gift spending will still fall short of 2019’s spend (13.67bn pounds). Financial concerns brought about by the pandemic, rising taxes and energy prices, and expected product shortages brought about by supply chain issues are anticipated to be the key reasons for 2021’s spend on gifts falling below the 2019 total.

Growth in spending on clothing

Sales of clothing and footwear are forecast at 2.06bn pounds this holiday season. Fashion retailers are set to see the most significant YoY boost in sales at 44 percent, this is mainly a result of the pandemic hitting this sector hard during Christmas 2020; lockdown shifted consumer priorities away from fashion, resulting in Christmas spend falling by 50 percent YoY. In reality, the sector is still recovering from the pandemic, as spend on clothing and footwear is still expected to fall shy of 2019’s total (2.86bn pounds).

Christmas spending by device

Looking ahead to Christmas 2021, spend is set to fall across all devices YoY as non-essential retail stores are expected to remain open as usual across the whole period, unlike in 2020. Laptops and computers are set to account for the largest online spend this Christmas at 12.48bn pounds, followed by smartphones (12.16bn pounds) and tablets (7.61bn pounds).

Excitement for Christmas

Christmas 2021 is set to look very different to Christmas 2020. Thanks to the vaccine rollout, Covid restrictions have been largely lifted since July and consumers have begun adjusting to life after lockdown. Whilst the pandemic is very much still present in the UK, it is unlikely that government restrictions will be reintroduced this Christmas, and therefore consumers are looking forward to the first ‘normal’ Christmas since 2019.

As a result, people in the UK are feeling more excited for this Christmas than the last and there is a strong sense of wanting to make up for last Christmas this year. When surveyed, 66 percent of UK consumers said that they want this Christmas to feel more special than Christmas 2020.

Christmas spending in the VoucherCodes report is defined as retail spending during the six weeks between the middle of November and the end of December.

Article source: VoucherCodes forecast Shopping for Christmas 2021: The Christmas period