I’ve taken a moment to look at data from a mix of newsagency businesses to look for indicators as to the possible performance of the Christmas season this year.
Despite the doom and gloom in the media, especially around the interest rate news, early sales are strong.
Christmas cards, decorations and gifts are selling well. The success is greater in those focussed on the more premium products with Christmas related sales in these businesses up 8% to 10% year on year.
By premium I mean decorations priced at $10 and more. Sone have decorations and Christmas home decor products at hundreds of dollars, and they are selling.
At the lower end, decorations priced to compete with supermarkets and scout variety, sales growth is not and obvious.
In the Christmas card space, boxed cards are strong as are single cards. As is often the case, it’s the fringe captions that are selling well early as they are often bought by regular card shoppers who know what’s what.
Engaged retailers can expect, I think, good growth in Christmas revenue in 2023 compared to 2022. While shoppers talk about inflation and interest rates, I see little evidence of it impacting what’s put through registers in newsagencies.
Christmas 2023 looks good!