With analysts confirming a national reduction in footfall over the Christmas period – in the last full week, it is estimated that footfall was down 11.4 per cent compared to 2023 (source: BRC-Sensormatic) – and two major retailers, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, taking the decision not to open on Boxing Day, PG&H asked independent gift retailers up and down the country how they fared in the all-important run-up to the most crucial trading period of the year.
“I was a bit concerned about this Christmas, as last year was so busy, and thought, if we could just achieve something similar that would be fine. But we absolutely smashed it, and were up by over 20% on Christmas 2023,” confirmed Progressive Gifts & Home’s columnist, Bill Nettelfield, owner of Bill & Bert’s in Colchester, who was interviewed by ITV News’ Richard Hookey on 27 December.
“2024’s Christmas sales season was one of our best yet, despite the challenging external factors,” reports Alice Milner, manager at Bumbles in Ashtead. “While our sales traditionally ramp up around September, we saw a notable spike from late October into early November, and interestingly, our busiest day of the year wasn’t Christmas Eve, but Monday December 23rd, which surpassed expectations. Customer spending remained consistent with previous years, but we observed a trend of earlier gift shopping, most likely to spread out costs.”
Continued Alice: “Our festive bestsellers were wellness products, fashion items and children’s gifts, with Jellycat toys seeing a particularly large sales increase.”
Helen Crawford, co-owner, The Old School Beauly in Beauly, confirmed that the main festive shop started in earnest mid-October, coinciding with the Scottish October school holidays. “From mid-October onwards, it was a more or less a steadily increasing spend, with our best ever November and December in 15 years of trading. Plus, 2024 was our best year ever, with the last week prior to Christmas being the best week in our history of trading.”
For Nicola Hibon Jackson, owner of The Voewood in London’s Blackheath Standard, Christmas began at the start of October, with customers beginning to look for gifts and ideas. “It then really kicked off in the last week of October,” she highlights. “We held an extremely successful Christmas shopping event on 12 November, three weeks earlier than in previous years. This really helped customers to focus on shopping locally for their Christmas gifts. Many of those who came on the night made substantial purchases, coming back to shop with us again in the six week festive run up. In fact, the week leading up to Christmas was extremely busy We took on two extra temporary members of staff for the final three weeks to enable us to ensure we gave great customer service, as well as not to miss out on potential sales. In fact, Christmas Eve was actually our busiest day of the year in terms of takings.
“People were looking for gifts that clearly looked like ‘a gift’ – products with the ‘wow’ factor, with beautiful packing and thoughtful design – or things with quality ingredients/materials,” she highlighted.
“Wow what a Christmas season, we felt blessed!” enthused Celina Eason, co-owner of Artichoke in Tynemouth. “November and December were super busy for Artichoke. Best sellers included Neom home fragrance and Jellycat. Books and jigsaws also sold well,” she added.
“Overall Christmas was satisfactory – no better than that, but no worse,” comments Richard Barker, owner of Cilla and Camilla which has four shops in West Dorset to include a gift shop in Bridport. “We ended December nicely ahead of my cautious expectations. There were no real surprises among our best-selling lines – candles, toiletries, woollen accessories and jewellery. We did well with Jellycat and didn’t – to our knowledge – suffer from theft which was widely reported. However, alongside many others, we struggled to get timely supply across a range of lines. We have tried, over the years, to find a good brand of gift chocolate. This year, after previously falling short with other brands, we finally found a winner with the Cambridge Confectionery Company.”
He added: “Certain suppliers stood out for their ability to fulfil last minute orders – St Eval, Museums and Galleries, Talking Tables and Hot Tomato.”
For Andrea Pinder, owner of Presentation in Barrowford, Christmas really kicked off in November. “We had a quieter first two weeks in December than anticipated. However, on Christmas Eve, our sales were up 50% on the previous year. We sold smaller priced items in design- led gifts, where the average spend was £19.99. Best sellers were chocolate, food gifts, home fragrance, especially candles, sentiment gifts, smaller fashion accessories, such as socks, and jewellery. In both children’s and adult plush gift, Jellycat was No. 1 every time. Our free giftwrap service certainly encouraged customers to come back.”
At Bringing The Outside In, Wells-next-the-Sea, owner Martin Billing commented: “This year, we observed a noticeable delay in gift buying. Typically, we experience a strong uptick in late November, but this trend didn’t materialise until well into December. Year on year, sales in the four weeks leading up to Christmas increased by 7% across our four existing stores, though the average spend per customer was lower. Expanding our range of targeted, accessible gift items early in the season contributed to this growth. Popular categories included stationery, boxed sock sets, candles, and jewellery.”
Above: For many gift indies, Christmas 2024 saw the tills jingling.
