The retail results are in – shoppers took to high-streets in impressive numbers, despite the cost of living squeeze. But, how did beauty do?
Dubbed ‘the golden quarter’, the festive period is crunch time for retailers. With forecasters warning of tightening purse strings, plummeting figures, and a lack of consumer confidence, retailers entered the trading with caution.
Now, many are breathing sighs of relief, with their numbers back in the green thanks to shoppers returning to high streets at an unexpected rate. In its analysis of the holiday season, Springboard retail consultants found that footfall in December was up 5.8% month on month and 9.9% higher than a year before. Also, high streets saw a 12.7% increase in shoppers than in 2021, while shopping centres saw a 10.3% uplift and retail parks also enjoyed 3.6% more visitors.
That said, the figures were hit by the train strikes that took place the week before the 25th, with footfall falling by 20.1% in comparison to the same week in 2019, more than doubling from 9.6% the week before.
‘The longer-term impact of the strikes on December’s footfall appeared to be negligible, with the 5.8% increase from November,’ says Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard.
She goes on to say: ‘What is also evident, is that while many employees worked from home in December due to the strikes, consumers were not deterred from visiting bricks-and-mortar stores and shifted some of their trips away from high streets to shopping centres and retail parks which can be more easily reached by car.’
Many beauty retailers also received some reprieve, with customers opting for low-price gifting. Boots says UK sales were up 8.7% in the last quarter a year ago, which it is putting down to Black Friday and a strong focus on value.
Managing Director, Seb James shares: ‘Our focus on giving customers our best ever value to help with cost of living pressures, as well as continued investment in our digital capability and in updating our store estate, has resulted in increased retail sales and market share growth for the seventh consecutive quarter.’
The Perfume Shop also banked record Christmas sales figures. The retailer sold 1.77 million bottles of fragrance between 28 November and 24 December 2022, boosted by a 26% sales increase in gift sets during the week before Christmas.
E-commerce was a key driver for this success with The Perfume Shop’s online channels receiving an average of seven orders per minute throughout the festive period.
Next Fashion, Beauty and Home also saw positive results, with a 4.8% rise in total full-price sales year on year in the nine weeks to 30 December.
Despite this success, Lord Simon Wolfson, NEXT’s Chief Executive Officer remains wary: ‘Next year is going to be a difficult year due to continued pressure on prices.’
According to the Office of National Statistics, The UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 10.7% in the 12 months to November 2022, this remained high throughout December and is set to remain at this rate until early 2024.
