There may have been some well-publicised weak spots in the UK festive season but shoppers “flocked online to take advantage of deeper discounts, online sales events, flexible payment options and broader choice”, an Adobe report told us on Wednesday.
Photo: Public domain
Its latest data showed that UK shoppers spent a record £25.8 billion online during the two-month festive season, up 5.9% year on year and £1.4 billion higher than the £24.4 billion spent during the same two months in 2023.
The extra spend came as “shoppers took advantage of seasonal deals and the deep discounts available during Cyber Weekend” from 29 November to 2 December.
The Adobe Digital Insights team used Adobe Analytics to analyse hundreds-of-millions of visits to retail sites from UK consumers during the wider period, tracking the prices of 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories.
The results show that there was some buoyancy in UK retail, despite reports of weak footfall to physical stores and retailers reporting a difficult in-store trading period.
In fact, Adobe said online shopping grew faster in November and December than at any point in 2024 “as consumers sought to find the best prices for their holiday purchases and take advantage of the deeper discounts, broader range of products and flexible payment options at their disposal”.
Of the aforementioned record-breaking £25.8 billion spend in the last two months of the year, £12.4 billion was spent in November and £13.4 billion in December. Some £14.5 billion was spent via mobile during the period, representing 7.4% growth from last year, and accounting for 56% of total online spend.A total of £3.6 billion was spent online in the UK during Cyber Weekend, up 5.2%. Black Friday (29 November) was the single biggest online spending day of the year, with consumers spending £1.12 billion.
In London, total online holiday spending hit £3.73 billion – up 6.5%. The highest spending days for Londoners were Black Friday (£271.8 million, +8.3%), and Cyber Monday (£167.8 million, +6.2%).
BNPL boost
The payment options referred to seem to have been crucial as consumers turned to Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services. A record £3.6 billion was spent via BNPL services, and accounted for a chunky 13.9% of all festive spend. That was up 9.1% compared with the same period last year.
But while that was good news for the Christmas season, it could dent spending in the first couple of months of this year as consumers continue to fork out their deferred payments during January and February.
Adobe said other BNPL records achieved during 2024 included the highest ever spend in a single month with December’s £1.88 billion, and the highest ever single day for BNPL usage being Cyber Monday (2 December), reaching £152.8 million.
Other interesting points to note included 56% of the year’s festive spending being via mobile, representing 7.4% growth from the previous year.
The report told us that online spending was “further boosted by the growing influence of affiliate partners (including social media influencers) and Generative AI as sources of gift inspiration for consumers and referral traffic for online retailers”. Affiliate partners drove an 18.9% revenue share (up 3.9%) while retail traffic from generative AI sources more than doubled when compared with October (up 107%) and up 2,600% against a year ago.
The record-breaking final two months of 2024 meant 2024 ended up as a strong one for online spending.
UK consumers spent a total of £115.3 billion in the year (up 3.7%). And it was also a record year for BNPL usage, with £17.6 billion spent via these services, representing 15.2% of total online spend for the 12 months.
Burberry announced a key appointment on Friday with the luxury business saying it will soon have a new chief information officer.
Charlotte Baldwin
It has appointed Charlotte Baldwin to the role and she’ll join the business at the end of March. Baldwin will be responsible for leading Burberry’s global technology team and will join the executive committee. She’ll report directly to Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman.
He described her as “a highly experienced technology and digital leader with a track record of leading large-scale digital transformation”.
She hasn’t previously worked in the luxury fashion sector but has wide-ranging experience across some major-name businesses in Britain.
She’s currently the global chief digital and information officer at coffee chain Costa Coffee where she oversees the company’s technology, digital and data organisation.
Prior to joining that firm, she was the chief information, digital and transformation officer at private healthcare giant Bupa’s Bupa Insurance unit. She’s also held senior roles at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Pearson and Thomson Reuters.
Burberry has been navigating a tough period of late and Schulman joined in the top job last year, tweaking the firm’s strategy. His approach seems to be paying off with the company last week porting improved results, although the turnaround is still undeniable a work in progress.
Another day, another shopping centre delivering a “record-breaking” performance in 2024. This time it’s Gloucester Quays “capping off another year of considerable growth”, for the owner/operator Peel Retail & Leisure.
That included record Christmas trading at the key Gloucester mall, which helped overall sales for the year finish 6.7% ahead of the national average. Across November and December, retail sales grew 3.6% compared with 2023.
Looking at 2024 in total, an overall 7.4% year-on-year sales increase across its tenants was split between 6.1% for retail, and 8.5% for F&B.
But there was also double-digit growth from leading fashion, homewares, and outerwear brands including Next, Skechers, All Saints, Mountain Warehouse, Puma, Crew Clothing and Suit Direct.
It said sustained growth was seen across all categories “points to the increasing relevance of the Gloucester Quays experience”.
Paul Carter, asset director at Peel Retail & Leisure, added: “There have been various headlines this month about how challenged retail was around Christmas, so to have Gloucester Quays performing so well is a real credit to our team and our brands.
“These results also serve as a reminder of how relevant and in demand this outlet is. We have experienced consistent growth for several years, and that success can be put down to the quality of our offer and waterside environment. There is no doubt our catchment is responding to how we have evolved Gloucester Quays, as an urban outlet that combines a compelling shopping environment with dining and leisure to fit all tastes and needs, benefitting from a heritage waterside setting that few regionally can match.”
Italy’s Give Back Beauty, which makes perfumes for luxury brands such as Chopard and Zegna, on Friday said it had agreed to buy domestic rival AB Parfums to grow its distribution operations and add licensing deals.
Corrado Brondi, founder and president of Give Back Beauty
Fragrances have been outperforming the broader beauty sector and Give Back Beauty founder and Chairman Corrado Brondi told Reuters his company did not rule a possible bourse listing in the future, adding it had no financial need for it at present.
Brondi said AB Parfumes had sales of around €100 million, which would add to Give Back Beauty’s net revenues that totalled around €300 million in 2024.
Give Back Beauty, which was founded in 2019 and has a distribution deal with Dolce & Gabbana and a beauty license with Tommy Hilfiger, has a core profit margin currently a little over 15%, it said.
AB Parfums is being sold by Italy’s Angelini Industries, a family-owned group that is mostly active in the pharmaceutical sector.
Give Back Beauty’s business is currently focused on fragrances, which represent roughly 70% of its revenues, but it aims to grow its skincare, make-up and haircare product lines, Brondi said.
Entertainment8 years ago