This week will see the UK’s major retailers reveal results from the festive period.
Results are expected to vary with online players such as Asos and Amazon seeing December spending grow by over 11 percent compared to 2016, according to Mastercard.
British retailer Next (LON: NXT) revealed results last week, showing a better than expected Christmas. Despite the forecast fall in sales of 0.3 percent, the retailer said overall sales rose 1.5 percent in the lead up to Christmas.
“It’s really the first cold winter we have had for about three years,” said Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of Next, who said that many shoppers had purchased cold weather clothing for the first time in 2016.
Other retailers that are expected to share results in the next week include Sainsbury’s (LON: SBRY), Morrisons, John Lewis (LON: JLH), House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer.
Retailer Marks & Spencer (LON: MKS) is expected to see struggling results, where clothing sales at established stores have fallen by 3 percent due to older shoppers’ disapproving of cost-cutting drives and lower quality products.
“The M&S customer is not interested in getting the more inferior product for lower prices. They would rather pay a bit more to get something relevant and of decent quality,” said Richard Hyman, an independent retail analyst.
Kate Calvert, a retail analyst at Investec, said she expected a “mediocre” performance from the retail group.
Tesco (LON: TSCO) is expected to see the most positive results for the festive period with sales growth of as much as 3 percent.
Discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl are also expected to publish a positive set of results after sales rose 15 percent in December.
According to Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, Sainsbury’s is likely to suffer the most after it suffered from “gaps on shelves” and an “unexciting store environment”.