Selfridges clearance sale starts strongly, shoppers also buy at full price

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 1, 2018

The Selfridges clearance period got off to a strong start on Boxing Day with the luxury department store operator saying that three hours into trading, between 09:00 and noon, it had already registered over £4 million worth of sales across all its stores and online.

That was slightly up on last year, which had itself seen a record-breaking Boxing Day. The company also reported December 26 as its biggest trading day of 2017.

The retailer had seen small queues forming from 02:30 outside the London flagship although it also said it was seeing a change in shopper behaviour with fewer people queuing in advance and more waiting until the store had opened. Unlike shoppers in the past who got there extra early, grabbed their bargains and then left, these later-arriving visitors are now more likely to treat their shopping trip as a day out and spend more time in the store.

The company also said it saw record numbers of shoppers visiting its e-store with the clearance sale having started there on Christmas Day. Around 1.5 million people shopped its online site on December 25 and the early hours of the 26th.

And those e-shoppers were more likely to use a mobile device than any other device with around 75% of customers shopping via their smartphone or tablet.

Selfridges said that the highest performing departments were women’s designer accessories, women’s designerwear, menswear, kidswear and luggage, with menswear in particular “registering unexpectedly high sales growth.” Women’s shoes and men’s shoes also performed “well ahead of expectations.”

But interestingly, customers also bought full-price items “in higher than expected volumes as well as indulging in bargain hunting.”