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CARDSHARP
Chestnuts For
Christmas
Well another festive season is upon us, reflected Cardsharp. This year it seems to have come around quicker than ever, or is it just his age? Our sector, even more so than other retail categories, is highly dependent on Christmas, so this month is going to be vital, even more so than usual given the testing year most retailers have experienced. For the majority of UK retailers December accounts for about 10% of their annual sales, but for most greeting card shops the percentage is well over double that. As Cardsharp writes this in the last few days of November, the omens are looking surprisingly bright. For the last few years it has been perceived wisdom that Christmas buying is getting later and later every year,
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
but there are signs that this trend just might be changing. Just like two swallows don’t make a summer, two robins don’t make a Christmas, but it was encouraging that John Lewis, which had very good sales of single Christmas cards last year, reported double digit like-for-like weekly sales growth in mid November. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s too proclaimed a very healthy start to its Christmas card sales. And although many independents were reporting a drop in boxed card sales, the trend of increased sales of individual cards seems to be continuing. And the most recent general CBI retail figures were
Above: Purchases of Christmas cards have made a healthy start. Below: Will retailers be in for tasty Christmas sales? Below left: Royal Mail’s Christmas strike has been deemed unlawful.
encouraging for once. After months of gloomy readings, they suggest that retailers are entering the Christmas period on a more stable footing. Some 44% of retailers said they expected sales volumes to increase in the year to December, while only 23% foresaw a drop in sales. These are the strongest expectations for over 18 months. Another factor is the way Christmas falls this year. Christmas Day is on the Wednesday and Christmas Eve is on the Tuesday and Cardsharp suspects that very few people will work those two days, meaning four clear shopping days before Christmas morning. All these positives could have been negated if the planned Royal Mail strike had gone ahead as planned preChristmas. Thankfully the strike was