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How sales lure in customers all year

Posted in General, Digital, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs December 28th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

The most popular online retailers over the Christmas period were Play.com, Amazon and eBay according to new research, proving that if something can be bought online, its by far an easier option than rolling with the high street crowds.

As usual the post-Christmas Day period has seen every Tom, Dick and Harry hitting the high streets to wrestle with the other desperate bargain hunters.

It has always remained a mystery to me as to why so many people would ‘hit the sales’ the day after Christmas when the sales actually run for an entire month in most cases.

Unfortunately, I had the undue pleasure of having to do so myself this year as a friend was visiting and was desperate to grab some bargains on her Aussie dollar.

For years I’ve pondered about just how cheap things can get in London, with the Boxing Day sales providing no answers. In my opinion, most shops were still ridiculously over priced and I found myself turning my nose up at discounts of up to 50 per cent for the sheer fact that I know within a few weeks the retailer will be so desperate to be rid of old stock items that they will be further reduced.

Why is this not common knowledge? Retailers have a habit of advertising their sales so widely that shoppers are lured to the high streets on the assumption that all the good stuff will go in one day. However, I know for a fact, having once worked in a big high street store, that they actually save a hell of a lot of stuff for later - so the customers keep coming for the rest of January.

Why? People don’t tend to spend on themselves in December as they are too busy trying to buy Christmas gifts for all everyone else around them. Come January the guilt is gone and even if the guilt of spending remains, if there are sales on and a purchase can be justified.

That’s just a guess – but it’s something to think about while you’re riding a crowded tube to Oxford Street this week to battle it out with thousands of unforgiving bargain hunters.