According to a representative survey, retailers in Germany can expect more sales on December 6th than before the corona pandemic. How can the increase be explained?
On St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, retailers in Germany can expect sales of more than one billion euros this year. This is the result of a representative survey carried out by the Institute for Retail Research (IFH) on behalf of the German Trade Association (HDE) in the run-up to St. Nicholas Day.
In 2019, before the start of the corona pandemic, retail companies recorded sales of 860 million euros.
On the one hand, the increase is due to the fact that the number of people who want to buy gifts and confectionery for St. Nicholas Day on December 6th has increased. According to the survey, 37 percent of respondents want to spend money on gifts this year – significantly more than four years ago. At that time it was 26 percent. But higher prices are also likely to play a role.
Everything that fits in Santa’s boots
However, consumers do not want to dig deeper into their pockets. Average spending is stable. Almost 65 percent want to spend as much as in the previous year, 16 percent want to spend less, 12 percent want to spend more. The most popular goods are food (19.6 percent) and toys (11.3 percent).
“Customers buy everything that fits into Santa’s boots,” said HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth. “St. Nicholas Day is and remains an important sales stimulus for retailers in the Christmas business.” The survey was not carried out between 2020 and 2022 due to the corona pandemic.
The Christmas business is the most important time of the year for many retail sectors. Nevertheless, traders are not particularly optimistic this year. Compared to the previous year, the HDE expects a real sales decline of 5.5 percent – i.e. adjusted for prices. According to a survey by the trade association, almost 80 percent of retailers in the non-food sector assume that many customers will be reluctant to shop. Every second retailer expects business to be worse than in 2022. A nominal increase of 1.5 percent is expected.
Santa Claus survey
Source: Stern
