As we report in this week's issue, the festive trading season seems to be starting to live up to its name. Although there have been some high-profile promotions, most store groups have managed to avoid full-blown Sales - testament to tight stock control and effective planning.
And, just like in the old days, M&S has mastered circumstances rather than been in thrall to them. All the anecdotal evidence points to seasonal success for the high street giant, which is rapidly regaining its status as the sector's bellwether.
Analysts from Numis visited Kent megamall Bluewater yesterday and reported that the M&S shop was 'by far the busiest we saw, with queues at the tills for most of the day'. Upgrades after Christmas are on the cards.
It was only two months ago, as analysts started seriously buying into chief executive Stuart Rose's recovery programme, that the retailer's share price broke through the magic 400p offered last year by Philip Green.
Since then its rise has been stellar and the City's scribblers are pushing their M&S target prices ever upwards. This morning, Numis upgraded from 440p to 500p, following on the heels of CSFB's 500p and Morgan Stanley's 510p.
At the time of writing, the retailer's shares stood at 492p. For Rose, Christmas 2005 looks like being the start of the season to be jolly.
The dotcom boom is back and online sales are likely to soar again this Christmas. Big high street names that were early adopters of the new sales medium, such as Argos and Tesco, should reap the benefits. But a plethora of pure-play e-tailers should also do well.
Amazon aside, online auction site eBay has been one of the most phenomenal success stories of the emerging digital retail era. TJ Hughes, the private-equity backed value department store chain, has come up with an intriguing way of piggybacking eBay's opportunities. In what it claims to be a first, the retailer has created a TJ-branded store on eBay. Shoppers can buy everything from cameras to knickers, either at a fixed price or by bidding. TJ says its bargain-focused offer is ideal for eBay's deal-hungry customer base and that the initiative has doubled its online sales.
It's an imaginative way of exploiting the web's potential. If the enterprise is successful longer term, no doubt other store groups will quickly follow suit.
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