With Easter just around the corner now, retailers are hoping for a ‘hopping’ good time as long as the weather behaves itself. In the latest retail report from business analysts, Springboard a rise in footfall of 2.4% is predicted this weekend, providing good news for retailers still bouncing back from a poor February.
Springboard Insights Director, Diane Wehrle says: “With normal weather Easter weekend footfall is anticipated to increase due to a range of factors including the timing of national payday before Easter, the milder weather following recent periods of adverse weather, the ongoing demand for leisure oriented trips and the bounce back in footfall in February from December and January”.
It’s all good news for cardies and gift shops, many who already have reported a healthy increase in sales of Easter-related product, particularly around the trend for Easter decorations, with greeting cards, stationery and gifting seeing a knock-on effect in growth.
Easter sales have been strong for The Barn at The Hollies Farm Shop in Cheshire, with Sarah Holland, marketing executive commenting: “We create lovely big Easter displays which give a real bright spring look to the place. This helps to highlight all the popular Easter chocolate and eggs, as well as showcasing our other new spring ranges and gives the customers the WOW factor when they walk in.
Easter decorations and card sales are really starting to grow for us. We have pussy willow trees hang with decorations and a lovely range of Easter cards. Main sellers alongside the chocolates are products for using in Easter egg hunts for the children, like Easter baskets and egg decorations.”
Northwest agent Rachel Williams has noticed a significant increase in cards sold in the shops she supplies, especially those for relations, particularly grandchildren. “I have also sold a lot of little packs this year and Easter egg bags with the green straw tissue for eggs. I have even seen Easter wrapping paper, which is a first! I would go as far as to say I did nearly as much for Easter as I did Valentine’s.”
* UK consumers purchased 4% less chocolate eggs in 2017 than they did in 2016, according to a report just released by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. The analysis also revealed that a higher proportion of total spend is on leisure activities at Easter than on any other spending occasion during this holiday period. In 2017 40.8% of Easter spend was made on non-retail products which includes leisure activities, compared to 34.3% on Mother’s Day for the same type of products.
