Impact of retailer Christmas sales performance on future performance

Retailers published their Christmas sales figures recently and again some performed better than others. What do sales figures mean in terms of future sales though? Can a good result cause a domino effect resulting in even more sales? We asked shoppers where and why they shopped for Christmas and how they feel about retailers’ Christmas sales figures.

16% of shoppers say they didn’t do a main shop for Christmas. Of those who did 88% say they used their normal grocery store and 12% shopped somewhere else. Of those who shopped somewhere else for their Christmas food shop the main reasons for doing this included using a variety of stores for different products. Quality and price were both determinants of store choice. The most cited reason was using a variey of store for different products.

The proportion of shoppers switching to another store for better quality or for shopping around for promotions was pretty much equal. The effect of the tendency to trade up or shop around for deals was visible in the retailer sales figures over the Christmas period. Both ends of the price spectrum, the discounters and Waitrose, recorded strong performance in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Do shoppers pay attention to the retailers’ sales performance then and does it influence where they shop? Of those who had heard the grocery retailers’ Christmas sales figures just over half (52%) said they weren’t influenced by them. Considering this, almost as many (48%) say they are influenced by the sales performance of retailers to some extent.