Final call for PG Retail Barometer contributions
All independent retailers are being urged to participate in PG’s annual Retail Barometer, with just a few days until the deadline.
Submissions are made in complete confidence and all opinions will help paint a true picture of what have been the main boons and banes of indie life over the past year.
To participate you just need to click here and it will only take just a few minutes to complete the survey, which can also be done in sections so retailers can stop and restart if they wish.
The only annual survey into what’s happening on the indie retail front, it closes on Wednesday, and all independent greetings stockists are urged to participate as their responses will collectively paint a true picture of how trade has panned out in 2023.
Early feedback suggests Christmas has been pretty good around the country, helped by inflation dropping back – has that been your experience? We want to know!
“Thankfully we avoided the chaos of last year’s postal strikes,” Jakki Brown, md of Max Publishing which owns Progressive Greetings and PG Buzz.net, said. “And we’ve had the boost of the #Cardmitment campaign pushing card sending brilliantly – but a year’s trade is not just about Christmas.
“There’s been the sharp increase in stamp prices and the continuing challenges of the cost-of-living crisis, so we want to know how all these elements have affected the consumers card buying habits.
“We need to compare 2023 to 2022 to see how indie card retailers are faring – and the PG Independent Retail Barometer enables that to happen, but we need input from as many lovely indies as possible.”
The survey is live, with a deadline of 8pm on Wednesday, and all indie retailers of greeting cards are asked to help by contributing their opinions and comments – last year 1,750 shop owners took part and many said they were going into an uncertain 2023 with a feeling of cautious optimism.
The results showed 35% came into the year aiming for growth, although only 4% had said they were expecting significant growth, 76% expected to grow or hold steady. How did it end up? The Barometer findings will shine a light on this.
This year’s Barometer readings will show whether the shop local drive has continued to serve indies well. It was a trend cited as having been the biggest help to trade across 2022 by 64% of respondents but, with more returning to office working in 2023, how has this panned out?
On the downside, the all-encompassing cost-of-living crisis came straight into the list as the top reason indies cited for having had a detrimental effect on their business over the year, though the Covid hangover was still among the top banes, dropping from first to third, as were supply issues which went down two places to fourth and, with people able to get back to shopping in person again, the old chestnut of parking issues climbed back up to fifth place from 10th, while the bugbear of charity shops selling cards rose to seventh from joint 11th.
“Whatever your business experience over the past year, all views count,” Jakki added, reminding people each submission remains confidential.
“We always have a great response from retailers to the Barometer, enabling us to provide a meaningful benchmark over the years – and the more the merrier to ensure we get as authoritative a picture as possible of indies’ collective experiences for the past 12 months as well as their hopes for the coming year.”
If you’re an independent retailer please do participate by clicking here to complete this significant survey by the deadline of 8pm on Wednesday, 10 January.
