Retailers set for ‘reasonably good’ Christmas, Mintel

Mintel has some festive cheer for Britain’s retailers. It is predicting that December’s retail sales will hit £47.7 billion (incl. VAT), growing 4% compared to the same period last year.

Sales through non-food retailers are set to reach £23.5 billion (including £4 billion from online sales generated by physical stores), while food retailers will rack up £18.6 billion (including £1.4 billion from online sales generated by physical stores).

And in the battle between clicks and bricks, Mintel estimates that pureplays will account for £5.6 billion worth of sales. Combined with the £5.4 billion generated by physical non-food and food stores, total online sales this December will clock in at £11 billion.

“We think that retailers can look forward to a reasonably good Christmas, not outstanding, but it won’t be bad either. While there are some reasons to be cautious, such as falling consumer confidence, there is no real sign of an underlying slowdown in retail sales growth. Retail sales have held up well this year and we expect the recent momentum is likely to be maintained, with retail sales growing at about 4% both in the final quarter of 2018 and in December itself,” says Richard Perks, Director of Retail Research at Mintel.

“While there’s been much talk of how the High Street is being undermined by online retailing, it still only represents a relatively small part of overall retail sales, with most shopping still taking place in physical stores.”