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Pre-Christmas discount sales were everywhere in 2011 as more and more stores appeared to be starting their New Year promotions earlier.
It would seem that consumers now expect the sales to begin before Boxing Day, and many people delay their Christmas shopping until later in December to take advantage of the special deals and voucher codes that become available.
Love My Vouchers, one of the UK’s leading voucher code websites listing vouchers and offers for thousands of UK stores, reported a record number of transactions during December 2011 and they are not alone. Indeed, many people now only consider buying an item if there is a voucher code available.
So where do the retailers go from here?
January sales are still eagerly awaited by the public and with reductions being listed for so many stores during December it remains to be seen how far retailers will go to ensure the usual level of spending during January.
The new year sales this time around will have to be extremely appealing to shoppers in order to beat year on year results, as January 2011 was surprisingly strong due to factors such as the VAT rise and bad weather in December 2010.
A lot of major retailers are offering incredible discounts that shoppers will find difficult to resist. Amongst them, Debenhams and H&M have set their sale at up to 70% off and many other stores are providing phenomenal discounts promising up to 50% and 60% off sale items (e.g. Marks and Spencer, Next, Banana Republic). Some retailers are even claiming that their “biggest ever sale” will be taking place in January. Furthermore, many new voucher codes have been released to boost the sales even further as wise spenders are now using these online exclusive deals to get the best discounts.
The prediction is that shoppers will use a record number of codes to get discounts during the January sale period. Consumers are a lot more clued up about how to get discounts these days and the number of voucher related internet searches is constantly on the rise.
A survey conducted by Love My Vouchers revealed that shoppers had on average completed around 70% of their Christmas shopping online due to the availability of internet discounts that could not be found on the high street.
This trend is expected to continue into January 2012 and beyond.
