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Boxing Day sales see 50% rise in UK shopper numbers
Shopper tracking agency Springboard reported on Monday a 50% increase in shopper numbers compared to last year's Boxing Day sales in the United Kingdom, which were impacted by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
While this represents a bounceback from 2021, the numbers are still 30.5% lower than those seen in 2019. Insights director at Springboard, Diane Wehrle, attributes the rise to the good weather and the fact that Boxing Day fell on a Monday this year. Boxing Day came on Sunday last year, with many large chains choosing to remain closed or reduce trading hours.
However, analysts at GlobalData for Vouchercodes predict that overall spending on Boxing Day will be down by about 4% to about £3.8 billion, indicating a bigger drop in the volume of items purchased due to record inflation of over 10%.