Many retailers in the UK are advancing their biggest annual sales in an attempt to lure more buyers. Last year round, retailers had a torrid time because of the poor sales during Christmas season. The winter sales for more than half the retailers will therefore start before Christmas.
In fact, 75 per cent of those surveyed see the retail prices falling further in the next six months. So distress sales are only to be expected. While there was a lull in 2005 as far as private equity investment in retail sector was concerned, 34% of retailers surveyed think that this scenario would improve in 2006. 46 per cent are of opinion that status quo would be maintained.
The fact that only 10 per cent of the retailers expect to see really upbeat sales before Christmas is another reason why most of them have bought in less Christmas stock to retain their margins. For instance, health and beauty chain Boots recently doubled its cheap gift range orders and reduced their orders radically for upmarket goods.
The Barclays survey, which took into cognisance opinions of 180 senior retail executives across Britain, indicates that prices will plummet and stores would pare their prices to sell of their stocks."The results are not a surprise. These are tough times for the retail sector," say Paul Clarke, Director of Barclays.
Since, Christmas is a critical period in the UK, where companies or either made or broken, retailers are understandably anxious. The fact that this has been the weakest performance from markets in a decade is not helping matters too.
According to Richard Hyman, head of research consultancy Verdict, this Christmas would see worse sales than last year’s. He adds: "We think sales will be up but you will probably need a large microscope to see the increase.”
Posted
on : Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:05 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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