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ICSC predicts festive holiday sales season in Europe

November 5, 2013

European Christmas-holiday spending in 2013 is likely to be stronger this year, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) survey of industry executives collected between October 16 and 31, 2013. The survey, which is part of ICSC’s monthly Pan-European Shopping Centre Executive Opinion report, asked shopping-center industry executives about their 2013 holiday-spending forecasts compared with the 2012 season. 

An overwhelming 71 percent of respondents anticipate that the 2013 holiday season will be better than last year and almost a fifth believe sales will markedly outperform 2012. A further 29 percent think that the festive period will be on par with last year and, encouragingly, not one respondent believes that there will be a year-on-year decline in Christmas sales.

“The results of this poll are good news for year-end performance and also reflect a renewed optimism for the future of the European shopping-centre market in 2014 as European economies continue on their slow path to recovery,” said Sarah Banfield, ICSC senior research analyst. “Beyond the upcoming holiday season, the survey found that industry expectations for business activity over the next six months turned up markedly in October with the second-highest reading since the index began in March 2011.”

The latest outlook for the 2013 festive period also compares favorably with industry sentiment at the same time last year when 56 percent of shopping-center executives were hopeful of only a slight improvement in seasonal performance on the previous year, almost a quarter of respondents anticipated that sales would be in line with Christmas 2011 and, notably, the same percentage expected the market to deteriorate.

Pan-European shopping center executives’ expectations for shopping centre sales for November & December, compared with the previous year.

Read more about consumer behavior.