Fears of a slump in the holiday season proved to be unfounded as Boxing Day sales on Thursday, December 26, gave a boost to British retailers, The Telegraph reported. Shoppers spent over £2.7 billion in stores and online retailers all over the UK. A lot of shops reported that to date this has been their busiest Boxing Day, the report said.
Analysts have forecasted that shoppers would most likely spend £2.97 billion by Friday both in brick-and-mortar stores and online. If the prediction comes true, the total will beat last year's figure of £2.8 billion, the report said citing data from the British Retail Consortium and the Centre for Retail Research.
The report said the figures for Thursday will boost the retail sector and be seen as evidence that the UK economy is getting better. Deloitte Consumer Business Specialist Jason Gordon told The Telegraph, "There is certainly a rebound in consumer confidence as the economy picks up which is definitely good news."
Citing data from CRR, the report said £2.22 billion was projected to have been spent in stores on Thursday, representing a 5.7% increase from last year. IMRG, an internet retailers' association, said online shoppers forked out £540 million on Boxing Day which represented a rise of 15% from last year. Spending is expected to be higher on Friday.
In the run-up to Christmas, poor weather caused the number of shoppers to fall from 1% to 5.7% but on Thursday, ten million people rushed to the stores. The figure was 1.5% higher than the 9.8 million shoppers last year.
HIS Global Insight Chief UK and European Economist Howard Archer told The Telegraph, "Consumers are likely to be especially keen to take advantage of the genuine, major bargains in the sales to acquire items that they are otherwise struggling to afford or are reluctant to make at the moment."
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