Christmas shopping over the weekend overtakes last year says Synovate Retail Performance
13 December 2006
UNITED KINGDOM — Provisional data from Synovate Retail Performance's Retail Traffic Index™ (RTI™) show that shopper numbers over the weekend were up on the equivalent weekend last year and up on last week too. Across the weekend as a whole, shopper numbers were up by 0.7% year-on-year and by 4.2% week-on-week. On Saturday 9th December shopper numbers were up by 1.1% on the same Saturday last year (10th Dec) and up by 3.8% on the previous Saturday (3rd December). On Sunday numbers were down by 0.1% on the same Sunday last year (11th Dec), but up by 5.0% on the previous Sunday (4th).
Dr. Tim Denison, Director of Knowledge Management at Synovate Retail Performance and leading retail psychologist comments; "Our preliminary analysis indicates that the weekend was a better one for retailers. For the first time in the run-up to Christmas this year we have seen more shoppers over a weekend going into stores than did last year. Granted, the rise of 0.7% is small, but it implies that the situation may be significantly better than some had projected. Until all of last week's data are collated and validated we have to be cautious about the conclusions that we can draw, but the weekend's news will certainly strike a note of optimism for retailers.
"Fine weather on Saturday will have helped bring shoppers out in force, but we shouldn't underestimate the role of numerous town authorities and trade associations up and down the country this weekend injecting a festive atmosphere through their Christmas parades and fairs.
"Christmas shopping is now in full swing. People were out and about in their droves over the weekend, searching for gifts and bargains. The news of Nintendo's Wii consoles having already sold out adds credence to our comments last week that shoppers should snap up the items they want when they can, rather than hang out for better deals.
Synovate Retail Performance's analysis of the retail traffic data for the full trading week commencing 3rd December will be released on Wednesday.
All enquiries for follow up or interviews with Dr Tim Denison should be directed to Theo Chalmers at Verve PR on 01908 275271 (weekdays) or 07932 004632.
Contact(s) for this press release
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Tim Denison
Synovate Retail Performance |
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34 Walker Avenue |
Tel. +44 (0) 1908 682 700 |
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Theo Chalmers
Managing Director, Verve Public Relations |
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Park House, 8 Grove Ash |
Tel. +44 1908 275 271 |
Synovate Retail Performance provides footfall monitoring solutions, shopper tracking systems and in-store behavioural research to retailers worldwide. Its core products – Shopper Count, Shopper Interact and Shopper Engage – scientifically measure all aspects of a shopper experience from store entry to exit. Originally founded as Solution Products Systems Ltd (SPSL) in the UK in 1998, it was acquired by Synovate in December 2007 and now offers unrivalled global reach and scalability through Synovate's network of in-country teams and three specialist hubs based in Europe, North America and the Far East.
It supplies national and international retailers with essential business metrics to drive accountability and performance improvement. Synovate Retail Performance harnesses powerful retail and shopper intelligence and creates real deployable insight, to deliver its mantra of "Measure, Manage, Improve" to clients.
Synovate Retail Performance is home to the Retail Traffic Index series, which for over 10 years has been the industry's leading tracker of national, regional and sector retail footfall trends. It is also co-founder of the KPMG / Synovate Retail Think Tank, offering thought leadership on the state of retail health and the future of retailing. Synovate Retail Performance is part of Synovate Customer Experience, Synovate's global business practice specialising in the profitable management of the total sum of all customer interactions.
For more information on Synovate Retail Performance click here.
About The Retail Traffic Index (RTI)
The RTI from Synovate Retail Performance is regarded as the national benchmark of retail shopper traffic flow. It is constructed using a nationally representative sample of over 520 million visits to over 3,100 retail premises per annum across the UK, excluding the grocery, convenience and minor retail service sectors.
For further details and a full explanation see here.
About Synovate
Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 6,000 employees across 62 countries.
For more information on Synovate visit www.synovate.com.