Retailers are stocking up as they anticipate a feast of sales this Christmas.
Ruel Taylor, director of mobile phone accessory retailer Mobile Fun, expects to sales to hit the £1 million mark for December, compared with £900,000 last year. ‘The recession didn’t really impact the spend of our customers in 2009. We expect even better results this time as people are always keen to get their hands on the newest technology.’
As the economy shows continuing signs of recovery, there appears to be renewed confidence among SMEs. Organic product retailer So Organic is forecasting sales up 12 per cent to £500,000 for November and December. COO Stuart Burlton says: ‘Despite the market being very price-orientated this year, we expect to sell in volume and we see good sales both in our retail store and online.’
Further encouragement for retailers is that high street sales have grown for the fourth month running.
According to the Confederation of British Industry’s monthly Distributive Trades Survey of 20,000 outlets of retailers, a balance of +36 per cent say the volume of sales rose during October.
Lai Wah Co, CBI head of economic analysis, says: ‘Retailers expect sales growth to continue next month, in the run-up to Christmas. We should also see more of a boost to trade as shoppers look to beat the New Year VAT rise.’
Similar Posts:
- Sales boost for high street
- Retail sales remain slow
- Not a merry Christmas for retailers
- Web spending bonanza expected
- Christmas may not be as rosy as expected for SMEs
