When times are hard, Christmas really does come earlier every year...

 

It's time to deck your carts with boughs of holly. Cash-strapped consumers are going to spend £3 billion less this Christmas — and they've already begun the hunt online for the very best possible bang for their Xmas buck

Two new surveys show that consumer spending is set to total £3 billion less this Christmas and that, this year, Christmas shopping officially began last weekend.

A survey of 3,000 Brits for Travelodge has found that over half the nation (56%) will reduce the number of gifts they give to family and friends this year and 49% of adults are dreading the forthcoming festive season.

The average household is planning to spend £483.47 on the festive season, down £108.53 per family on 2007 and down £3 billion over the country as a whole. The five key ways in which British consumers will save money this Christmas are:

§                     Buying less presents and not sending Christmas cards to family and friends

§                     Purchasing inexpensive food and alcohol and choosing cheaper alternative options

§                     Attending fewer Christmas parties

§                     Avoiding entertaining family and friends over the festive season

§                     Not buying any new clothes or Christmas decorations

The survey found that:

§                     43% of consumers say they will be looking to save pounds by shopping in budget supermarkets, opting for cheaper brands of food/alcohol and adapting their Christmas dinner menu with cheaper alternatives, such as swapping turkey for chicken.

§                     67% of respondents reported they are looking to spend Christmas Day with family and friends — so that they can save money by not hosting the day. (The report found on average £156.78 can be saved by not hosting Christmas Dinner for family and friends — and here at IR we find the thought of the entire nation engaged in a Mexican standoff as we all wait to be invited to somebody else's Christmas strangely amusing).

§                     31% of households hosting Christmas dinner will ask their guests to bring food and drink with them as a contribution towards the cost of inviting them.

§                     24% of households hosting Christmas dinner will buy cheaper brands of crackers and food and and hide the boxes from their guests.

§                     9% of households will ask their guests for a monetary contribution towards the cost of hosting Christmas dinner

§                     9% of respondents reported Christmas will be cancelled in their homes this year because they cannot afford it.

§                     27% of Brits will be dipping into their savings to pay for the cost of Christmas this year.

Voucher and discount code website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk says that 47% of the internet searches that brought people to its website over the weekend of 13 and 14 September were related to consumers looking for Christmas gifts and ideas.

And, in a poll conducted with over 6,000 visitors to the site, 72% of those looking for Christmas presents said they were looking so early because they were attempting to organise their finances more rigidly due to the credit crunch.

In response, MyVoucherCodes has moved its planned Christmas campaign two months forward and has gone live with its dedicated Christmas Gift Ideas Page, designed to help visitors identify the very best gift bargains around.

"The Christmas related searches are getting earlier every year and we felt that in order to cater for this early-bird market of seemingly well-organised Crimbo planners we needed to react quickly and get our campaigns launched straight away," explained managing director Mark Pearson. Sadly, though, he adds "My decision to play blasts of Mistletoe and Wine and Jingle Bells to get our staff in the festive mood has not gone down too well in the office."

 SOURCE: INTERNET RETAILING

Thursday, 25 September 2008

 

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