Well it has certainly been a turbulent Christmas for retailers across the world. The weather having had a huge effect on many Christmas sales.
I was in London for Christmas and all over the news were reports of retailers suffering across the UK as a result of the snow. People just couldn't get to the shops and what should have been the busiest weekend of the year on December 18th (40% of high street shoppers and 25% of out-of-town shoppers shop in the two weeks before Christmas) turned out to be quite a white wash.
Reports suggested that whilst many had bought their Christmas presents early, the last minute impulse buys that retailers rely on in the last few weeks of the year just weren't happening. The problems came as heavy snow resulted in shoppers staying in at the weekend causing a disruption to trading. Brent Cross shopping centre had to be closed on Saturday 18th December and shoppers in Bluewater in Kent had problems entering and exiting the car park.
And it was the supermarkets who were hit the hardest. Grant Liddell, key account development director at logistics group Uniserve, said the costs of supply chain delays would have hit grocers the most because of the scale of their operations. He said the snow must have “cost millions for the retail sector”. He said that drivers having to take stock back to depots or ports if it could not be delivered would “add about £1,000 to each container”.
As the weather improved on December 21st it encouraged punters back onto the high street. In fact in that week John Lewis reported sales increase of 4.3%.
But what about those who bought online? Well if you got in early your deliveries were made in time, however the snow caused such transport disruption that many people missed out. In fact online supermarket Ocado said that about 20% of an estimated 3,500 deliveries could not be delivered.
Especially affected were those in Scotland where retailers including Amazon, Marks & Spencer and Tesco either suspended deliveries or warned of delays.
Scottish Retail Consortium director Fiona Moriarty said: “People will rely on the high street rather than online - the high street has been extremely busy since the thaw.”
M and M Direct boss Steve Robinson said while there had been more web visits, it had been difficult to distribute catalogues. But he said: “I think [the snow] has benefited multichannel retailers most.”
John Lewis selling operations director David Barford said: “We’re in a fantastic position. What doesn’t go to clicks goes to bricks".
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