The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
With the big day tomorrow, Canadian Retailers have voted 2003 holiday sales a success, with over 70% declaring sales to be good or excellent this year. Specifically, strong sales since September helped reinforce the mood going into the holiday season, with most businesses saying volumes have been the same or a bit better in the last three months than the rest of the year as a whole. In fact, these buoyant sales are pretty much inline with what retailers had predicted they would be, with strong business volumes throughout the entire year helping to fuel the confident mood. And this positive outlook has made retailers well prepared for holiday shoppers. According to the annual American Express Canadian Retail Holiday Shopping Survey, which polled over 250 of Canada's top retailers, the overwhelming majority (92%) say they are satisfied with the way business has gone over the entire year and approaching the holiday season, six-in-ten (63%) of those surveyed said they were expecting Christmas sales to be better than last year. This sentiment among retailers is roughly on par with consumer attitudes. According to an American Express poll released earlier, Canadians said they planned to spend an average of $1,013 this year on holiday related expenses. In fact, nearly three-quarters said they had no plans to cut-back, with one-in-five expecting to increase their holiday spending compared with last year. Heather Nairn-Rand, Director of Marketing at American Express says, "we have definitely seen signs of a turnaround in consumer confidence, which is great news for the retail industry. And while we may not be back to the peak levels of a couple of years ago I would characterize the mood among both retailers and consumers as being better than we might have expected considering everything the sector has faced this year." "There is no question that events like SARS, and the war in the Middle East dampened confidence levels, but people seem to have bounced back and are feeling much more optimistic about the near-term future." Nairn-Rand adds that American Express has seen strong retail spending in its own business this year compared to 2002, with retail billings up 16% for the year. In contrast to the cautious response to the uncertain environment in 2002, retailers have approached this season with a more upbeat mindset. Almost all retailers polled (96%) said they have increased or kept the same seasonal staff this year. A very small group of retailers (15%) said they would cut back on inventory and more that two-in-five (43%) said they would increase their inventory to keep up with customer demand. Additional Findings - Larger retailers are more likely to feel significantly more positive about how sales are progressing this year, with almost six-in-ten (57%) of those earning ten million a year or more saying sales are better than last year. This is compared to four-in-ten (42%) of those earning less than ten million saying the same thing. - Consumers may find the big banner sales harder to get before Boxing Day with only one-in-five retailers saying they will feature more pricing promotions before Christmas. - The pent up demand seen in the electronics category over the last few years is expected to subside, with only 5% of retailers believing electronics will do well this year, compared to 17% of retailers saying it would be a popular ticket item in 2002. - While retailers don't anticipate any single category to be all the rage this year, clothing (7%) and seasonal items (7%) were most often mentioned to do well. - Of the very small group (7%) of retailers that predict a decrease in Christmas sales; a weakened economy (33%), more competition (33%) and decreased spending (33%) were most often cited.
