The busiest day for shopping in UK physical stores during the golden quarter will be the so-called Super Saturday, that is, the final Saturday before Christmas, or 21 December.

That’s according to data from Sensormatic Solutions. It said Super Saturday 2024 will echo 2023. The Saturday two days before Christmas was the busiest day a year ago and should be again, even though it being a leap year means Christmas Day itself isn’t until the following Wednesday.

The company also released data for other key European markets and said that for France, the five busiest days will be 11 January (when clearance sales start), 30 November, 21 December, 14 December and 18 January.

In Germany, it will be more similar to the UK with 21 December, 14 December, 23 December, 7 December and 30 November. 

Meanwhile for Italy, it will be a very different 5 January (the Sunday before Epiphany), 4 January, 6 January, 12 January and 1 December.

And for Spain, the busiest days will be 4 January, 3 January, 2 January, 21 December and 30 November.

Back with the UK, leveraging historical festive traffic data from its ShopperTrak Analytics solution, we’re told the next busiest day after Super Saturday will be the Monday before Christmas, with the third busiest being Saturday 14 December and the previous Saturday being in fourth and fifth place.

The Sensormatic platform captures 40 billion shopper visits globally each year and it showed that last year on super Saturday, UK footfall jumped 35% year on year. And between 21 and 24 December, UK consumers spent £4.89 billion. Despite black Friday having disrupted the usual December rush in the last decade, that figure shows just how significant the boost from last-minute gift buying can be.

This year, while Black Friday will continue to impact store footfall, with the Saturday of Black Friday weekend (30 November) predicted to feature in the top five busiest days of Peak Trading, this year, it’s down two places from third a year ago. That’s due partly to the importance of later shopping days but also to some shoppers shifting their activity even earlier, including Amazon Prime Day.  

The company also conducted original research of 1,000+ UK consumers and it showed that 21% of shoppers had already started their Christmas shopping by September and 26% plan to begin gift buying in October, a rise of 5 percentage points compared to 2023.

And while 30% will start their Christmas shopping in November, just 7% plan to target Black Friday itself to start making festive purchases, rising to 15% of Gen Z consumers.

“The period from Black Friday through to the New Year remains critical for retailers, and each year presents unique opportunities to optimise strategies and delight in-store shoppers,” said Andy Sumpter, Retail Consultant EMEA & APAC at Sensormatic Solutions. 

“When the season wraps, ‘success’ is not just about increased sales; it’s also about building brand loyalty, attracting new customers and setting the tone for the coming year.  Our traffic predictions provide a valuable roadmap for the Peak Shopping season, and the ability to adapt and respond to holiday shopping trends can be the difference between a good year and a great one for retailers.”