Good news for gift retailers is that shopping early for Christmas has begun. As John Lewis opened its online Christmas shop this week – based on searches for festive items increasing by 370% – there’s a clear message out there that Christmas shopping may well be starting much earlier this year.
With 119 days to go to the big day, the retailer has seen such a surge of interest in Christmas trees, baubles, lights, cards and wrapping paper, that its online Christmas shop opened ten days earlier than last year. (Christmas items will be available in bricks and mortar John Lewis stores from September 25).
“Christmas celebrations mostly take place in our homes and we have seen how lockdown has made people think more about their homes, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that people are already thinking about how they will decorate them this Christmas,” said Jason Billings-Cray, Christmas buyer at John Lewis.
“From the hundreds of emails from customers asking to be alerted when specific decorations become available, it looks as if animal baubles will be the most popular this year with peacocks, squirrels and toucans topping the list of those most wanted.”
A strong, early run up to the festive season has been a recurring theme since lockdown, with a recent survey conducted by money.co.uk – which surveyed 2000 shoppers in July – predicting that the UK looks set for a record-breaking Christmas, with shoppers revealing that they intended to splash their cash on gifts for friends and family to help to get over lockdown.
Also predicting that Christmas shopping would start earlier than in previous years was Phil Pond, a trend analyst at forecasters Scarlett Opus. Speaking at an Exclusively webinarlast month, he highlighted that searches online had started in April, chiming with lockdown, revealing that people were thinking ahead about trends, gifts and decorating their homes.
Top: Christmas baubles are already in demand.
