Sale shopping
Only 40% of shoppers believe that they will actually bag a bargain during the January sales, so that's why most will be avoiding the sales altogether.
According to the Office of National Statistics the retail sector alone was worth £24.6 billion in January 2012, so a possible decline in January sales could provide yet another blow to the retail industry.
Death of the January Bargain
Interestingly, while the stereotype goes that women love shopping more than men, the data actually suggests that men are bigger bargain hunters with 55% of men saying they will be shopping in the January sales compared to just 50% of women.
Despite scepticism among the British public on the value of the traditional January sales, almost half of 18-24 year olds still believe that the best bargains are available in January compared to any other time of year.
The Right Time to buy
The January sale is no longer the best time to buy, with Pricerunner.co.uk and the Centre for Economics Business Research (Cebr) identifying the opportune moments throughout the year to buy your favourite goods including mobile phones, tablets, games consoles and the more mundane products such as white goods.
The UK is a nation of tech lovers and throughout 2012 the average price of mobile phones steadily decreased with particularly steep price drops occurring just before a major product launch. In fact, in the month running up to the launch of the new Apple iPhone 5, the average price of a mobile phone dropped by as much as 7% to approximately £150. The same can also been seen for tablets with the average price of tablets dropping approximately 10% in the two months prior to the launch of the new iPad in March.
White goods such as fridge freezers are some of the most popular with almost 2 million searches in 2012. PriceRunner suggests that the best time to refresh your kitchen is in the run up to Christmas with average prices dropping from an annual high of over £465 in June to £370 in November.
Andrew Walker, UK country manager at PriceRunner said: “It’s interesting to look at how prices of various products fluctuate over time; we all know roses are expensive around Valentine’s Day but the trend applies to so many more products. Consumers are catching on to this and realise that the biggest bargains are not necessarily found in the January sales. Finding the best deal at the right time of year doesn’t have to be tricky, sometimes it’s a little bit of insight and some common sense. By using shopping comparison tools such as PriceRunner.co.uk, people can find the best deal while getting great impartial advice on their purchase.”
Oliver Hogan, Cebr Head of Microeconomics, added: “Cebr has been monitoring pricing data on PriceRunner.co.uk for some time. Our observations suggest that there has been increasing volatility in the price of individual products during their life-cycle, with no apparent change in their quality other than perhaps being overtaken by the latest model. By developing a straightforward understanding of when particular goods are likely to be priced at their most competitive, such as when new models are introduced (especially in the gadget world) or when retailers’ need to meet sales targets by discounting, consumers (at least those who are less concerned about ‘having the latest model’) can make significant savings on products, without any noticeable depreciation in the quality of what they are receiving.”
Textiles top of the pops
Unsurprisingly, clothes remain the most popular January sales items with over one in five shoppers saying that they plan on clothes shopping in the 2013 sales. A quarter of women are planning on scouring the aisles for great clothing bargains compared to just 19% of men.
The survey also shows that as a nation we love cheap tech with one in ten UK shoppers hoping to get a great deal on a laptop while 12% plan on buying a mobile device (phone or tablet) in the January sales.
And, despite January being the time of year for New Year’s resolutions, detoxing and fad diets, only 3% plan on purchasing new sports equipment in January.