Shoppers spent less for Christmas, Amazon was big winner says survey

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 1, 2018

UK shoppers cut back on Christmas spending for 2017 in large numbers as inflation and general economic uncertainty hampered the year’s biggest shopping season.

Researcher Retail Economics surveyed 2,000 households and found that 47% spent less while 28% spent roughly the same as in 2016 and only 25% increased their spending.

Given that inflation had continued to rise throughout 2017, even flat or slightly increased spending would not have represented a win for for retail stores.

The survey also showed that 25% of consumers don’t intend to buy during the current clearance sale period, possibly because of the deep discounts available in the run-up to Christmas. Some 20% of respondents said they bought into retailers’ discount frenzy during the Black Friday period. 

But despite many consumers having no plans to shop this month, 25% said they will be looking for bargains post-Christmas.

In terms of where people shopped with their slightly lower Christmas budget this  season, Amazon was the number one destination (37% of shoppers), followed by Asda (26%), Tesco (25%), and M&S (23%).

The survey also showed that two-thirds of shoppers ventured online during the Christmas season, although Amazon’s position as number one shopping destination showed that e-tailers may not have benefitted evenly from this shift.