It’s no secret that Christmas is a make or break time for many retailers, but what’s less well publicised is what retail contributes to the UK’s economic health over the peak period. 

Retailers have a huge job on their hands over Christmas - here are just a few of the key facts

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reports that retail sales accounted for 20% of UK GDP in 2012 and, with 13% of all retail sales happening in December, it’s clearly important for the whole economy that retailers have a good Christmas. 

Staffing levels increased in December by nearly 5% in 2012, and the rise looks likely to be even bigger in 2013. The BRC reported that 68% of retailers intended to increase their workforces in the fourth quarter last year, and that has increased to 72% in 2013.

Part of the influx of temporary workers, no doubt, will be to deal with the higher number of online deliveries. Delivery firm MetaPack, which represents 75% of the top 100 retailers, says it will process more than 24 million parcels being delivered during the peak period of November and December – compared with 16 million last year. In total, online delivery is up 55% for the retailers MetaPack serves.

The BRC detects positive signs for December sales growth. It says: “We don’t like to forecast but we can say with confidence that sales growth is on course to be an improvement on last year, when the final numbers put December at an acceptable but not exceptional 1.5%. But we won’t know for sure until we get our December sales data, due for release on January 10, 2014.”

In the meantime, retailers have been working flat out for weeks. From turkey deliveries to gift inspiration, they must provide everything Britons need for a perfect Christmas – and in the process, retailers are helping to boost the UK’s economic prospects for 2014.

Other Christmas facts and figures:

  • The busiest day in Waitrose branches will be this Monday, December 23, and 10am to 11am is expected to be the busiest hour. Holloway Road in London is expected to be the busiest branch.
  • The busiest days for Waitrose warehouses to distribute fresh food will be from today until Monday morning. 5,439 hours will be worked over the Christmas period.
  • At John Lewis, Cyber Monday (December 2) brought a spike in online orders between 9pm and 10pm, contributing to a week when the retailer picked, packed and delivered in excess of 500,000 customer orders across the network, nearly five times a normal week’s activity.
  • John Lewis also loaded 200 trailers a day to replenish its branches during that week.
  • Accountancy firm BDO says shopping on mobile devices is likely to overtake desktop sales this Christmas.
  • Dixons will complete 100,000 deliveries a week at its peak. 
  • MetaPack predicts 24 million parcels will come through its system during November and December – last year the figure was about 16 million. 
  • In total, MetaPack says online delivery in 2013 is up 55% on 2012.
  • MetaPack’s delivery volume for Cyber Monday was 45% up on 2012. Interestingly, the Monday before was 56% up on 2012.
  • According to MetaPack this shows that orders were more evenly distributed across peak this year, rather than being focused on Cyber Monday. It said: “If anything, we expected more volume on Cyber Monday, it wasn’t as great an increase as expected.”
  • MetaPack says that the first three Mondays in December formed three mega Mondays – all very similar in volume with no single peak day.
  • John Lewis creates about 2,500 temporary jobs across stores and distribution. The BRC reported that 72% of retailers intended to increase their workforce in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with 68% last year.

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