High Street retailers may feel a chill as Christmas shoppers plan their own spending cuts

Christmas shoppers are planning their own spending cuts this Christmas - tarnishing retailers’ hopes of a prosperous “Golden Quarter” – according to new research.

Four out of ten shoppers say they plan to spend less or much less on Christmas than last year – the survey says.

More than a third have already almost completed their Christmas shopping.

An astonishing eight out of ten shoppers said they would walk out of a high street store if customer service doesn’t come up to scratch.

And there is a gloomy forecast for January sales, when New Year VAT increases begin to bite.

The survey, by business intelligence analysts and mystery shopping company, Retail Active asked 2000 people for details of their Christmas shopping plans.

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Families say they plan to save on Christmas spending this year, wherever possible – with more than nine out of ten saying they are going to spend under their limits this Christmas.

“Times are tight and our survey shows that people are resorting to selling belongings to raise cash, dipping into savings and buying on credit.

“Competition on the High Street is vicious and there is firm evidence that retailers are bringing forward their January sale prices now in an attempt to encourage shoppers to spend and beat the January increase in VAT.

“The high street is highly price sensitive with retailers under pressure to achieve revenue forecasts during the “golden quarter.”

“The fact that more than a third of shoppers surveyed reported that they had already completed ninety five per cent of their Christmas shopping is an ill omen for high street retailers hoping for a late surge in spending.”

Eighty-seven per cent of shoppers said they would walk out of shops where customer service fell below expectations.

Julian Chamberlain said: “We send thousands of mystery shoppers to test the service and brand delivery of high street brands up and down the land.

“Customers are just not prepared to put up with poor service unless they have to make a distress purchase.
“There is everything to go for over the next few weeks and it’s still not too late to make a real difference to store performance.

We are offering retailers a five point plan to help them capitalise on the trade that is still out there and to maximise sales.


1 Front line is Bottom Line – focus on ensuring that your staff are motivated to give attentive and speedy service.
2 Are your staff up selling? Look for the opportunity to sell, Even up to the point of paying, customers still want to buy and are at their weakest when at the checkout
3 Perception is reality! create an experience that customers remember and want to revisit – consider how you will get customers back to buy again before Christmas
4 Price is important but service is critical – What can you do to ensure your brand delivery flawless
5 Provide focused training for your team and have systems in place to monitor service delivery and quality

What's in store - Audit helps Moto get fit for the weekend

The motorway service operator Moto says an audit programme with the leading Mystery Shopping Company Retail Active to monitor stock availability during its peak summer trading period was a great success.

Moto, which has 43 sites, is one of the most recognisable brands on the UK motorway network

The audit programme named ‘Fit for The Weekend’, ran from Easter to the August bank holiday aimed to ensure that retail shelves were correctly stocked and brand standards were maintained.

Retail Active was asked to monitor Moto’s estate and to produce instant audit reports for their various branded retail offers.

Moto’s head or retail category management, Ed Sutton, hailed the exercise as a success.

He said: “It helped us as a business to protect the availability of our products at key trading times. The aim was to make sure the shelves were correctly stocked and to monitor changing displays, promotions and standards.

“If you haven’t got central stock figures daily or hourly, the only measure is to physically go in somewhere and have a look – then you have to wait for a stock statement.

“Using Retail Active saved hours of management time. We went from the not knowing - to the knowing about what was happening on the ground.

“Did our standards improve during the audit? Yes they did. We started in the red and moved into the black and pretty much stayed there.

“This is definitely something we want to continue.

“Retail Active are a great, positive, professional auditing company who deliver what they agree to do. You have only got to look at their client base to understand why.

“We operate in quite a unique sector and they adapted well to that. They came into a business like Moto and adapted themselves to work how we wanted them to work.

“The project was delivered to the brief.”

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Our speciality is the speed with which we report back to management, which means they can respond instantly to any issues, which arise.

“We were able to rapidly text scores back to senior managers so they can react to information as it happens.

“We announce our presence to staff and if anything is not up to standard we record it and encourage them to get it right while we are there. We are not out to apportion blame – simply to maintain and improve standards. Our aim is to ensure that the business is fit to trade effectively during busy periods.

“Our expertise means we can deliver fast, accurate information – which allows executives to understand the situation in real time in dozens of outlets – while saving hours of management time and costs.”

Your brand is a major asset - Make sure it stays consistant

A strong brand image is one of every successful company’s major assets – which makes maintaining its consistency across widespread outlets absolutely vital.

Brand Auditing is an established technique, giving senior management the ability to monitor the way in which the brand is being represented throughout the organisation.

It is a process of checking operational compliance of brand facilities, standards, procedures and policies.

The business intelligence and mystery shopping company, Retail Active, is one of the UK’s leading practitioners of brand auditing, with a vast experience of helping to maintain brand consistency for a wide variety of household- name brands.

Managing director, Julian Chamberlain says: “The idea for brand auditing came from the clients themselves. They wanted to ensure a consistent operational standard across multi-unit operations, to deliver flawless execution of the brand.

“Brand auditing creates a regular, structured process to identify compliance and non-compliance of brand essentials.”

This involves visiting entire chains in the space of only a few weeks to give a “State of the Nation” report on the execution of the brand.

It saves hours of wasted management time, resources and overheads and produces web-based data, with photographs, which can be views 24/7.

The brand auditors provide detailed and structured feedback to managers, giving assistance and expert advice, where necessary.

Julian Chamberlain says: “It is an excellent method of protecting capital investments, correcting any non-approved practices and maintaining the fabric of the business.

“However, depending on the brand, it only works effectively as part of an ongoing measurement programme.”

Brand auditing involves a regular monthly or quarterly structured audit operation – which is normally unannounced and which checks compliance against a pre determined and agreed criteria. Each non-compliance is fully recorded and backed up with evidence. It is recorded on a 24/7 reporting system – providing instant visibility of the brand delivery and performance. This approach if frequently used in conjunction with a mystery shopping programme.

Julian Chamberlain says: “Each programme is developed on a bespoke basis, to meet clients specific requirements – but the underlying process remains the same.

“The most common pitfall is to use the brand audit process to penalise unit managers.

“It should really be used in a more strategic way to uplift the performance of the brand, share information on best practice and reward great performance”.