Christmas shoppers now buy in ‘swoops’ rather than over longer periods.

Good news for the UK high street – the Christmas rush finally started last weekend according to the latest figures from the Experian Retail FootFall Index (RFI).

Statistics show that the number of shoppers increased 3.8% on Saturday 15 December, climbing to nearly 9% on Sunday 16 December.

According to FootFall, it is widespread sales – launched in a last desperate bid to rescue this year’s retail washout – that are finally drawing festive shoppers to the high street.

Martin Davies from Experian explained: “Following two washout weekends, retailers finally gave in last week and launched extensive pre-Christmas sales in order to give a much-needed boost to shopper numbers.”

He however pointed out that it could be too late for the high street to recover from the slow start, adding: “While the increase in footfall over the weekend will be a relief to retailers, shoppers had a lot of catching up to do and it is unlikely that the weekend’s activity will come close to making up for the slump of previous weeks.”

According to Davies, shoppers now tend to make purchases in one or two big swoops rather than dragging the Christmas shopping process out over several months – giving way to a ‘silver month’ for retailers, rather than the traditional ‘golden quarter.’

The RFI measures over 150 million shopper visits per month in over 200 retail centres throughout the UK, covering more than 12,000 retail outlets. Over 80% of the UK’s population is contained within the catchment area studied.

By Natasha Piscitelli