Boxing Day Sales Down on Last Year’s Figures

Boxing Day’s retail footfall fell by 1.2% compared to last year’s figures, continuing a year-on-year trend of declining shopper traffic.

Johnson Control’s retail advisory arm, Sensormatic released data compiled from their IQ platform to show the dwindling numbers of shoppers hitting the high street this Boxing Day. The specialist platform annually measures over 40 billion shopping trips across the globe, and has uncovered a decreasing interest in traditional Boxing Day sales from UK shoppers.

This is not to say that the Boxing Day sales aren’t still effective. 2023’s Boxing Day contributed to a 39.2% rise in footfall from the week prior, demonstrating a significant upturn even from the historically busy week leading up to Christmas. In fact, Sensormatic’s EMEA Retail Consultant, Andy Sumpter, described this Christmas as one of “two halves”.

He explained that retailers will have experienced a Christmas period “bookended by peaks prompted by discount trading days with Black Friday at one end, and Boxing Day at the other.

“Continued cost-of-living pressures on consumer spending means that while shoppers will remain cautious with spending, demand for discounting remains high. And this makes events like Boxing Day and Black Friday, which also saw a 52.4% week-on-week rise in shopper visits, all the more popular”.

Several factors at play

While the cost-of-living crisis has undoubtedly had an impact on the amount of shoppers hitting the sales though, there may also be other factors at play that have affected these figures.

Several high-street chains took the decision this year to close on Boxing Day, allowing extra time off for thousands of UK staff. This move may have been made in response to dwindling Boxing Day revenues over recent years, but at the same time, it has undoubtedly reduced the amount of customer traffic in the high street from 2022’s numbers.

Poundland, John Lewis, Waitrose, Home Bargains, Aldi, and M&S are all among the big brands that stayed closed during the 26^th December. Just by speculating on the amount of nationwide customers each of these brands alone would have expected to have visit them on Boxing Day, you can start to see where a significant portion of custom has been lost.

Forbes Burton’s Managing Director, Rick Smith, suggests that another, more familiar factor may be in play here too. He explained that “there’s little surprise in seeing Boxing Day sales figures dropping each year. The cost-of-living crisis has seen many having to get by with little-to-no disposable income to spend, even on discounted items, but the death of the high street has been lingering long before the economic travails of recent years.

“The decline in Boxing Day sales merely reflects the greater issues facing high street retail since the widespread adoption of online shopping. With most of us now comfortable buying online, however, this gradual weakening of the high street may start to plateau soon, but it’s unlikely to ever recover to the level seen even 10 years ago”.

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