It’s time to start up the Christmas music, dust off the tinsel, and order the Santa hats, as transaction data from Worldpay reveals the last week in October is the official start of the pre-Christmas shopping rush. According to Worldpay, Britain’s
Robert Dyas is launching a brand-building TV advertising campaign in the run-up to Christmas. The retailer, owned by renowned entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, is rolling out the TV activity as part of a multi-layered integrated marketing campaign, bringing Robert Dyas to
The Spirit of Christmas Fair is the home of Christmas shopping and provides a chance to indulge in an exceptional Christmas-shopping experience like no other, according to the show organisers. Held at Olympia, 4-9 November 2014, the Fair features a new collection of independent
The latest August IMRG MetaPack Delivery Index confirms UK retailers are on course to dispatch a record 900m orders or 930m parcels in 2014, with 120 million orders in December alone. The predicted lull in online retail did occur in August
Northern food and drink retailer Booths has launched its 2014 Christmas Book and, for the first time, the range of Christmas food and drink featured in the Booths Book will be available to order nationwide. With just 29 stores across
New research from Sage Pay indicates that small and medium sized retailers could miss out on almost £88bn at Christmas because they lack an online presence. With Sage Pay’s research also indicating online spending over the festive period will hit a
December is the most important month of the year for UK retailer Marks & Spencer, and its advertising campaigns are the cornerstone of its holiday strategy. When its 2013 prime time Christmas TV ad campaign encouraged people to visit a dedicated
Elizabeth Shaw, the classic chocolate brand, has announced it is to extend its offering over the festive period with the launch of a limited edition Dark Chocolate Gingerbread Crisp, which to date, will retail from September in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose with an
For retailers Christmas is just around the corner. IBM has released its annual guide for how UK online businesses should prepare for the shopping season. Based on IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, the report provides a detailed analysis of the Christmas
Boxwood, the management consultancy, has launched a piece of research detailing the winners and losers from the recent trading period. The paper, produced by the Boxwood Insights team, uses the Q4 trading figures to shine a light on who will be the winners
New research released today (5 February 2014) shows two thirds of consumers (64%) ran out of disposable cash in January, after failing to budget for the Christmas and New Year festivities. The average shopper over spent by £305.30 at Christmas,
A combination of factors meant year-on-year sales growths at the UK’s leading supermarkets over the four weeks across Christmas hit their lowest levels in at least seven years – according to global information and insights company Nielsen. Despite consumers spending
A quarter of all UK shoppers used their mobile in-store to check the price elsewhere of a product they were about to buy in the run-up to Christmas 2013 and over a third of these ‘showroomers’ went on to buy from
Retailers celebrated the most successful mobile holiday shopping season to date but still missed out on over £1.5bn in sales due to the prevalence of outdated mobile payment experiences, according to research by payments validation company, Jumio. While shoppers increasingly
The health of UK retail remained static in Quarter 4 of 2013, as a slight increase in demand – assisted by a very late spending surge in the festive period – was offset by margin factors, according to the latest KPMG/Ipsos
Consumer delivery company, Hermes, reports it has had its busiest peak period to date as the predicted rise in online shopping continues. However it reported volumes were steady throughout December compared to previous year, with consumers choosing not to leave
Tesco, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer have all reported a decline in UK like-for-like sales over the key Christmas trading period. Tesco reported a 2.4% decline in like-for-like sales in the UK for the six weeks to 4 January 2014.
UK value retailer QD Commercial Group Holdings has posted increased like-for-like (LFL) sales over the key Christmas period for the fourth consecutive year. The group, which operates 51 stores under the QD, Cherry Lane Garden Centre, Thingmebobs and Lathams brands,
Could Marks & Spencer’s recent share price gains amount to little more than a bounce? Brenda Kelly, chief market strategist at financial spread betting company IG, discusses possible future movements for the stock Reports from the retail sector over the
Easyart, the fast-growing online art company, reports it has seen Christmas trading rocket ahead 12% compared with the festive period for the previous year. The company, which is based in London and produces high quality prints to order at its
Amazon has announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, the annual membership programme offering unlimited free two-day shipping on millions of items. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December, Amazon
Experian, the global information services company, has today announced online shopping predictions for this year’s festive period, anticipating 45 million hours to be spent shopping online over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. So far December 2013 is already
The latest weekly retail footfall update from Ipsos Retail Performance shows shopper numbers continue to exceed those of last year. For the week commencing 8 December 2013, Ipsos’ Retail Traffic Index, the national barometer of retail footfall, recorded a 1.0%
Three years’ worth of shopping data from Twenga, a leading UK retail search engine, has revealed traditional toys are more sought after than tech toys at Christmas.
Households with children aged 18 or under will spend more money on food and presents, according to a survey by ICM Research. Perhaps not that surprising, but they will also drink more units of alcohol, and have more arguments on
