It seems that every year the start of Christmas gets ever earlier and UK SMEs that have not launched their festive offers could be lagging behind their competitors; at least that’s the suggestion from moneysupermaket.com.
Shopping expert Simon James from the online comparison site, said that Christmas has already begun as far as retailers are concerned. He expects many of the online stores to commence their traditional end of year sales on Christmas Day to steal business from their high street rivals.
Of course, retailers are concerned by the impending VAT rise and will be cutting prices and introducing new promotions to entice customers before consumer spending is reduced next January.
Meanwhile, savers are being urged to cut down on their spending for the next few weeks in order to put aside a little extra for the festive season. Tim Mack from NS&I, the government backed savings provider, said it’s not sensible to try and buy everything solely out of December’s earnings. He is advising people to plan in advance and spread the cost over a longer time frame.
A survey conducted by NS&I found that 28% of people in Britain thought they would be less likely to put money away in the autumn, whilst 7% struggle to save anything in the run-up to Christmas. Similar research from moneysupermarket.com found that 53% of us are worried about the cost of Christmas this year.
However, the Post Office claims that 12% of us did start saving for Christmas way back in July. Its research showed that saving for Christmas is in the top ten reasons for saving.
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Image: Christmas Cancelled by alancleaver_2000
