It is known as the golden quarter – the three months before the end of the year are decisive for retailers as Christmas approaches and the sales period beyond.
But in a disastrous year for retail chains, the COVID-19 pandemic forced shoppers to stay at home, which virtually killed traditional January sales, where long lines were often seen outside stores and even malls as consumers were looking for a good deal.
Boxing Day in the UK on Boxing Day, footfall – the number of people entering stores – fell 63% from the previous year, according to data from sales experts Springboard retail.
Read: Retail bankruptcies in 2020 hit highest levels in more than a decade, and experts say there are more to come
COVID-19 was largely to blame, but not exclusively. Chain stores, which have to pay rent, staff and energy bills, have been struggling for some time, facing stiff competition from online competitors like Amazon AMZN,
This, and the UK’s introduction of Black Friday in recent years, imported from the US, has cannibalized traditional Boxing Day sales, leading some to question whether there is a future for such sales.
Diane Wehrle, Director of Marketing and Insights at Springboard, said: “Boxing Day has attracted less retail traffic every year for five of the past seven years as shoppers turn online to grab the best deals. .
“Interestingly, Boxing Day has become more of a day of leisure, with shoppers starting their trips later in the day and combining shopping trips with dining out and reuniting with family and friends.
“This year, after spending so much time online, consumers are now online shopping experts, knowing they can enjoy the same discounts, from the comfort and security of their own home.”
Read: Holiday sales in the United States surged 2.4% as online sales surge
Rebeccah Lawless founded the website Osolocal2U in March 2020 to offer a home delivery service for fresh produce and delicatessen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 30 years ago she had created 4DegreesC to supply the best restaurants in London and the South East of England, including Michelin starred restaurants, and she saw an opportunity to adjust the business model to deliver to home via Osolocal2U during temporary office closures. the spaces.
“Our core business was in office restaurants, and in March our business fell 97% overnight,” she told MarketWatch. “We had all this food, trucks, refrigerators and space, so I decided to go for home delivery.
“My son Jack set up a website and we made sure we were available on the phone to help new customers buy online. They learned with us and now we have a 90% retention rate.
The company began by selling only 43 fresh products and now has 2,500 stock lines, specializing in the deli, vegan and gluten-free ranges.
“This has supported a lot of our employees,” Lawless said. “And it’s definitely a viable business now, we’ve chosen to go more into the deli lines and high-end products that aren’t sold in supermarkets. “
A report from the Center for Retail Research, or CRR, compiled for VoucherCodes, estimates that £ 3.2bn ($ 4.36bn) is still expected to be taken by retailers in the UK on Boxing Day, but more half went online.
It produced new research which showed that 2020 was one of the worst years for UK shopping districts in the past 25 years, with around 3,400 retail jobs lost every week .
In 2020, according to CRR year-end figures, a total of 176,718 jobs were lost in shopping streets, major shopping destinations, towns and villages, as well as in small parades and isolated shops. across the UK.
Joshua Bamfield, director of CRR, said he expected more pain for the sector in 2021, warning that up to 200,000 additional jobs would be lost, adding “our forecast is based on a number of factors such as the cumulative effects of months of closure and its impact on cash flow and rent arrears that will be payable at the end of the moratorium. While the longer term effects of increased use by buyers of all kinds of online retailing are likely to be extremely damaging to physical stores. “
