Are January Sales the New Christmas?

December sales for non-food businesses dropped year-on-year, but data from post-Christmas and early January shows an uplift in spending.

Data from the latest British Retail Consortium-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor suggests that it was only supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi that had a December of increased sales, while online and high street non-food businesses suffered a year-on-year 0.3% dip. 

Christmas 2025 may not have been the shopping bonanza that retailers expected, but they should now focus on marketing to those customers who held off on full-priced purchases in December and are looking for deals in January instead. 

“Drab December”

Reported by BRC and KPMG, this 0.3% year-on-year decrease in December non-food sales stands out compared to the 4.4% growth seen from 2023 to 2024, and the 12-month average growth of 1.1%.

The report also revealed that December’s online non-food sales specifically dipped by a smaller 0.1% year on year, however, this makes for even more dramatic reading when compared to the year-on-year growth of 11.1% seen in December 2024. 

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “It was a drab Christmas for retailers, as sales growth slowed for the fourth consecutive month. While food sales rose on the back of ongoing food inflation, non-food sales fell flat in the run up to Christmas, with gifting items doing worse than expected.”

Hope for January

The figures for the beginning of this year, however, offer more hope, as there was an uplift in spending as retailers reduced prices for sales periods. Dickinson commented: “Many people were clearly holding out for discounts, with the last week showing significant growth off the back of Boxing Day and beginning of the January sales.”

Businesses need to market smartly to take advantage of this trend, not least because January shoppers are still very much feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis, and businesses will be fighting for their attention. 

Customer loyalty will play an important role in this, and therefore personalised deals could come into their own. Online shoppers in particular will be hunting out discounts and promotional codes in their inboxes. 

Shoppers on the high street may have specific buys in mind and will go from store to store to find the best deal. The high street, though, remains a tough environment. A Press Association report suggests that 2026 will see yet more closures with River Island, Claire’s, LK Bennett and Pizza Hut all on the watch list.  

Call for support

The BRC has used the report to call on the Government to support high street businesses, many of which are suffering from slow sales but also the burden of business rates, staff costs and what they argue are high taxes. 

Dickinson says: “From business rates to the implementation of the Employment Rights Act, there are plenty of opportunities for the Government to mitigate costs for retailers and prices for customers.”

For retailers of all sizes, December hasn’t brought the boon hoped; and they will now need to scramble to take advantage of any potential boost from January deals.