Pre Christmas survey – Retailers to hike discounts, cut stocks

19 Sep '09

2 min read

Retailers are expected to stock fewer goods and at the same time provide higher discounts to their customers, for the up-coming Christmas holidays, according to a survey released by Forbes Insights.

68 percent of the retailers said that, they would stock lesser merchandise and inventory, when compared with what they carried in 2008, while 66 percent are expected to offer higher discounts to their consumers.

The retailers were however, optimistic about the future. 46 percent of retailers project their income to grow in the next 12 months, while 60 percent don't expect consumer purchasing to return to the high levels of 2007 till 2011.

Revealing their plans on pushing sales, 56 percent suggested that they would spend more on advertising and 69 percent planned to attract more customers, by putting more thrust on e-commerce.

The report also provides insight in to as to how the retailers managed and were able to hold out during the period of acute slowdown, either by cutting costs, reducing store count or reducing their staff.

As per the report, 44 percent of retailer's trimmed down their workforce and 44 percent put on hold new store openings. Others tried to weather the storm by cutting their marketing spend, while some changed store timings.

A few turned around their offerings, some delayed renovating stores, others renegotiated their store leases and also closed existing stores or borrowed less. 5 percent of the surveyed retailers said they filed for bankruptcy.

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