The Christmas Trading Review (Part 1) launched this week by Retail Excellence, projected Christmas trading across the retail industry to be up marginally on the same period in 2016 against the background of a volatile trading climate.
CEO of Retail Excellence David Fitzsimons commented, ‘’We have spoken with our Members across all of retail’s various sectors and although they are cautiously optimistic about Christmas trading thus far which is on average marginally up, our research has highlighted a large surge online with sales tracking up over 30% on a like for like basis and logistics companies reporting a circa 40% increase in online packages.’’
“The week ahead is of critical importance for the Christmas trading period overall, with a large volume of shopping activity due to take place in the coming days, retailers will be hopeful that consumers shop locally and support their local stores in the run-up to December 25th to ensure a Merry Christmas for all 37,400 retail enterprises operating in Ireland.’’
