Consumer Analysis: British Shopping Culture During Christmas Season

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior during the Christmas shopping season in Britain. It highlights the unique cultural aspects of British shopping habits, including the tendency for last-minute purchases and the prevalence of panic-buying. The report examines the historical context of Christmas celebrations and the significant spending patterns associated with the season, including online shopping trends and the use of gift cards. A SWOT analysis compares food and non-food retailers, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report also explores strategies employed by retailers like Selfridge to manage the Christmas rush, including staff recruitment, stock enhancement, sales predictions, and marketing campaigns. It recommends strategies for retailers to improve sales and concludes with an assessment of Selfridge's brand perception and its potential for leveraging niche marketing during the festive season. The report draws upon several academic sources to support its findings.

Consumer Analysis1
Culture and Christmas Shopping in Britain
This study will establish the fact that Britain has a unique shopping culture compared to other
European nations. Most Britons leave their shopping activities to just a week before
Christmas.More than half the Briton population is established to experience a thoughtless
approach regarded as panic-buying. According to this activity, one in five Briton adults will
prepare a schedule of the things he or she would buy for Christmas every year. On the contrary,
most Briton adults would buythe first thing that they spot just to 'get it done'. However, there is
one third of the population that would leave their shopping to just a week before Christmas. This
leaves them in a rush to grab bits and pieces since they try to have things bought in time (Barbu,
2011).
introduction
The history of Christmas celebration dates back to A.D 336. On the contrary, the celebration has
changed with the modern way involving the sharing of food and gifts between friends and
family. This celebration is done on the 25th of December in the United Kingdom.However, the
days leading to Christmas are included in the season. Way back before Christmas day, people
save money and stock their houses with decorations and food. The task is always expensive.
About 39 percent of households end up spending about 200 British pounds excludingpresents
(La Rosa, Loos and Pastor, 2016).In 2016 alone, the Britons spent about 748 British pounds per
person in the Christmas period. In this period, people majorly buy products online. It has also
been established that in 2016, Britons spent about 299 British pounds per person to buy products
online (NASDAQ, 2017).

Consumer Analysis2
According to Amazon, 62 percent of Britons performed online research before shopping for
products. Mostly, people bought Christmas gift cards. However, there is also a large number that
bought electronic devices like computers and mobile phones (NASDAQ, 2017).
SWOT Analysis for Food against Non-Food Products
1. Strengths
Most British food retailers have sound finances compared to non-food retailers. Such finances
give them advantages over other competitors (Analysis, 2017). Other factors are:
- Positive cash flow
- Growing profitability and turnover
- Good credit control and skilled financial management
- Proper marketing
- Availability of an established customer base
- Having an effective offline and online presence
2. Weaknesses
Some of the weaknesses affecting food retailers include:
- Poor management of finances as a result of inadequate funds.
- Lack of marketing focus due to factors such as having unresponsive attitudes to the
requirement of customers.
- Failure to innovate and complacency
- Personnel and management flaws
- Inefficient production due to factors such as shabby premises and poor location
3. Opportunities

Consumer Analysis3
Both food and non-food retailers in Britain have a number of opportunities that they could use to
increase their sales (PNMSOFT, 2017). Such opportunities include:
- Improving access to new markets and customers through opening oversea ventures.
- Increasing sales to existing customers
- Developing alternative channels of distribution like social media platforms
- Introducing financial bankers
4. Threats
Some of the threats include:
- Emergence of new competitors and improved competitive products
- Significant loss of customers
- Failure to supply the required quality of products
- Legislative, political, or regulatory changes like cost increment (Analysis, 2017).
Overall Analysis
Since Britons rush to do last-minute shopping, about 45% of the population loses its festive
cheer.While around 17% perform shopping activities a month before December 25th, most people
buy nonfood products compared to food products (Kissinger, 2017).

Consumer Analysis4
Preparation for the Christmas rush
 One of the most basic and core initiatives taken by Selfridge is the recruitment of extra staff.
This is due to the reason that, there will be a huge rush during the Christmas time and it is
important to cater to the increased footfall effectively and efficiently. Thus inducting more staffs
prior to the festive season helps Selfridge to have adequate man power to deal with the
customer rush.
 Another strategy being initiated by them is the enhancement of the stock in all the stores by
replacing with that of the older stocks (Thiesse and Buckel 2015). This enables them to offer
their customers adequate amount of new stocks in the stores. Delay in delivery is also being
prevented by them by having adequate stock in stores.

Consumer Analysis5
 Sales prediction is also being initiated by them. This is an indirect strategy but it is important due
to the reason that based on the sales prediction, all the strategies will be initiated (Xue et al.
2014). Thus, the accurate sales prediction by Selfridge helps them to cater the festive demand
effectively.
Strategies initiated by Selfridge during Christmas
 One of the key strategies being initiated by Selfridge is to promote their new collections though
the social media platforms. According to their policy, they start the social media campaign from
2 months prior to the Christmas. This helps them to communicate with their target customers
regarding the new arrivals in the store, and let the customers do the shopping accordingly.
 Another niche marketing strategy being initiated by them is the personalized market strategies
for their loyal customers (Dalgic and Leeuw 2015). In order to do so, they sent holiday greetings
and wishing them greetings. This increases the brand recall for the customers and during the
festive time, the preference for their brand will be more.
 Another strategy is the initiation of discounts and offers for the customers. This strategy is
beneficial for the more mass market appeal. Customers who are not loyal to the Selfridge will
also get attracted with having the discounts and offers. Moreover, initiation of the discounts and
offers will increase the customer footfalls in the stores.
 Initiation of limited edition sales is also one of the effective marketing strategies for Selfridge. It
helps them to generate the sense of urgency among the customers during the festive time and
thus increasing in the sales chart (Choi et al. 2014).
Recommendation and Conclusion
To increase overall sales the retailers need to:
- Build proper relations with customers and suppliers
- Promote proper employee relations
- Potential disasters like data theft and cybercrimes should be insured against.
- Come up with proper contingency plans to curb potential crises.
- Intellectual property invest in should be legally protected (Analysis, 2017).
- Customer impression regarding Selfridge is mostly favorable and positive in the market.
Thus, it is one of the core competitive advantages for them to push new products in the
festive season. This is due to the reason that having positive impression lead to the

Consumer Analysis6
favorable perception of the customers and thus they will increasingly desire to consume
the particular product.
- Selfridge is catering to the upper class customer segments and thus, they are having the
perception among their potential customers that they are offering the top quality products.
Thus, it is being recommended that Selfridge should leverage their niche marketing
policy in order to generate sales from the market.
- Selfridge is having rich history and is operating in the market for centuries. Thus,
emotion of the customers is associated with the brand and it also helps Selfridge to cater
to the market effectively.

Consumer Analysis7
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