Boxing Day sales fall flat once again

Boxing Day sales have seen a muted start as shoppers continued to shun bricks-and-mortar stores in favour of online.

By 3pm, visits to UK high streets were down 1.5% on 2024, while shopping centres saw a 0.6% fall, according to data from MRI Software.

MRI’s footfall data showed retail parks saw 6.7% more people visiting compared with last year, but the rise has so far not been big enough to see an overall or significant bump in visitors.

Barclays expects shoppers to spend £3.6bn in the sales, down from the £4.6bn they forecast for the sales in 2024, with fewer people planning to bargain hunt than last year. The amount spent online is also predicted to fall.

Although people are still going out shopping, the figures indicate the Boxing Day sales are not the big event they once were.

The Barclays consumer spend report suggests those who plan to shop have upped their budgets by £17 compared with last year, but overall people are forecast to spend less this year than last year on Boxing Day sales.

Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said shoppers have been cost-conscious through the year and that behaviour is likely to extend into the Boxing Day sales.

But one shopper from Glasgow said she preferred the more subdued Boxing Day atmosphere.

“Everybody’s taking it at their own pace, it’s a more enjoyable experience shopping on Boxing Day, I think,” she told the BBC.

Although the festive period is an opportunity for many retailers to make up for quiet periods of the year, several major brands closed their stores on Boxing Day, including Next, John Lewis, Poundland, Wickes and Iceland.

Another shopper in Glasgow said that he comes out every year only because it was his family’s tradition.

“It’s definitely a lot quieter than usual,” he noticed, “though Lush did have a big, massive queue this year.”

Diane Wehrle, chief executive of Rendle Intelligence and Insights, said 2025 had been a challenging year for many people.

“In the run up to Christmas, consumers have really pulled back on spending because they were very nervous, particularly pre-Budget in November,” she told the BBC.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announced in her last budget up to £26bn in tax rises in 2029-30, which will bring the UK’s tax take to an all-time high of 38% of national income in 2030-31, according to the OBR.

It means a further squeeze on household budgets as inflation – the rate at which prices rise – remains stubbornly high, though it has fallen from peaks seen in recent years.

For employers, higher minimum wage costs and National Insurance contributions announced last year mean they’re footing higher costs in an economy with sluggish growth.

Separate festive spending data from Visa showed that in the run-up to Christmas, spending was only marginally up overall, with spending on electronics up 8.4% compared with the same period last year.

Official retail spending data from the Office for National Statistics for November also indicated many shoppers resisted the lure of Black Friday discounts and the start of Christmas sales campaigns.

But Ms Wehrle said the extension of pre-Christmas discounting and boom in online shopping meant Boxing Day sales “have really become less important” over the last few years.