Retailers await Panic Monday rush

Forget Cyber Monday and Manic Monday, the UK is set to wake up and smell the coffee on Panic Monday next week and take to the streets to pick up those last-minute presents.
Experian predicts that the day after – December 23 – will be the busiest shopping day of the year, with footfall to up 53% on the daily average.
So called Panic Monday – December 22 – is when online shopping is predicted to fall away as consumers head in-store to cover off the last items on their Christmas lists.
Steve Richardson, regional director, UK & Ireland at Experian FootFall, said that Christmas 2014 has already seen the rise of various shopping phenomena, such as the mainstream adoption of Black Friday in the UK and the advent of Manic Monday, which took over Cyber Monday as the busiest online shopping day this year.
“December 22 is expected to bring another new Christmas shopping date – Panic Monday – when consumers will abandon online shopping and take to the streets, in a bid to ensure they tick off all the final gifts on their Christmas lists.
“With this year’s footfall set to follow the same pattern as 2003 and 2008, when Christmas Day also fell on a Thursday, we expect Tuesday 23 December to be the busiest day in terms of shopper traffic, up 53% on the daily average. Last year, the peak periods on the busiest Christmas shopping day fell during the lunchtime rush, between 1pm and 2pm.
“To ready themselves, retailers may wish to bolster their rotas on this day to ensure there are sufficient sales associates to service customers’ needs, open up additional tills as required or adopt queue busting strategies to optimise in-store shopper journeys.”