MORPLANNEWS

2023 Catalogue Out Now

Our NEW 2023 catalogue is out now. This year we have a brand new look with some exciting inspirational pages. You’ll also find inside some new exciting products to keep retail exciting.

FOOTFALL RISE 5.8% DURING DECEMBER

As a fuller picture of Christmas trading begins to take shape, it is emerging that retailers with stores fared better.

Despite the ongoing pressures of the costof-living crisis on disposable income and the disruption of rolling rail strikes, footfall to all UK retail destinations rose 5.8% month on month in December, according to data from Springboard. Footfall jumped 40% year on year on Boxing Day as customers flocked to high streets, shopping centres and retail parks hunting for bargains at the beginning of the traditional Sales period. The strength of trading in stores has also been borne out in the rush of Christmas trading updates from retailers. Across every category, a pattern has begun to emerge – retailers with store estates and an integrated multichannel offering fared well over the Christmas period. PwC senior retail adviser Kien Tan says the reasons for the success of stores over the Christmas period were many; some planned and others more by chance

“For stores, the timing was perfect. You had that run of cold weather, combined with the postal strikes, which made it harder for people to know with certainty whether gifts bought online would arrive in time for the big day, and then the general drift towards people shopping later in the month,” he says.

Source: www.retail-week.com

DEATH OF THE STORE HAS – ONCE AGAIN – BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED

While the last few weeks have clearly given bricks-and-mortar retail a shot in the arm, is that uplift likely to lead to a reversal in the trend of the last few years of retailers rationalising store estates and reducing floor space?

Managing partner at retail property firm GCW Simon Morris says retailers will not be getting carried away with the performance of stores over Christmas and instead has hailed a “return to being sensible” on store estates.

He says: “Retailers aren’t going to suddenly start taking huge volumes of new stores like they may have in the past. It’s increasingly important to be able to read your customers and meet their needs across all channels. “It’s just as important to be able to ship to store for click-and-collect or fulfil online orders from stores, as the store itself is. Retailers are now looking at how customers from different places shop with them, rather than looking at population density and wondering why they don’t have a store in every town with more than X-thousand people.”

While the good times might not last much beyond the new year, this Christmas has given physical retail a real boost after an unprecedented few years.

Footfall still has not recovered to pre-pandemic norms but the last few weeks and months have proved the death of the store has – once again –been greatly exaggerated.

Source: www.retail-week.com