Retailers up and down the UK could be facing their busiest day of trading so far this year as lockdown ends and the British public – barred from non-essential shopping for the past month – races out for Christmas gifts.
Some of Britain’s biggest retailers will open for 24 hours, or at least until midnight, in an effort to make back some of the sales lost during November, usually one of the busiest shopping months of the year.
The CEO of Barclaycard Payments, Rob Cameron, is amongst those forecasting a bumper shopping day today, Wednesday December 2, saying: “We predict that shoppers heading back to the high street will bring about a ‘Black Wednesday’, with transactions likely surpassing what we’ve seen over the past month.
The sad news that Debenhams is winding up its 242 year old business sparked a frenzy, with more than a million shoppers forming a monumental virtual queue to get onto its ecommerce site to snap up massively discounted products, including branded fashion and beauty items with up to 70% knocked down.
Late on Tuesday night there was a wait of up to 20 minutes as more than 300,000 people tried to access the Debenhams website, with total shopper numbers topping a million. The online activity is being followed up today with a fire sale of stock at its 124 shops nationwide, raising the possibility of a shopping scrum, at a time when people are being urged to maintain social distancing measures.
Independent retailers up and down the country, many of which valiantly adapted to circumstances with ramped up online offerings, local delivery and click and collect services, are looking forward to welcoming customers in store. Everyone is now hoping that following a year of financial losses for so many people, 2020 will at least be rounded off with some serious Christmas shopping and strong Christmas spirits.
