Christmas: Consumers' Season

Author

Jane Lin

Organization

Statistics Canada

Published

2003

Summary

Tis the season to be jolly - and Canada's retailers certainly feel that way when December arrives. It's their busiest shopping month of the year.

Christmas: Consumers' Season, the latest article in the Analysis in Brief series, available today, analyses trends in Christmas retail sales from 1998 to 2002. It uses data from two Statistics Canada surveys: the Monthly Retail Trade Survey and the Quarterly Retail Commodity Survey.

Data show that despite attempts to lure them out earlier, shoppers still tend to wait until the last minute. In December 2002 alone, they spent $30 billion in retail stores. That's 10% of total annual retail sales or about 1.5 percentage points above the monthly average.

The impact of Christmas varies from product to product. Retail sales of toys, jewellery, perfume and music soar in December.

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Source: Consumer Policy Research Database