Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Post Christmas run unlikely to make up for poor festive trading

Christmas shoppers at Union Square.
Christmas shoppers at Union Square.

More than 3,500 jobs were shed across UK retailing this year as Britain’s lacklustre economic growth failed to boost shopping, industry figures show.

The figure for job losses is from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), whose director, David Lonsdale, said “anaemic” sales, shop price deflation, rising costs and thin or non-existent profit margins made life difficult for Scottish retailers in 2015.

A post-Christmas hunt for bargains which saw thousands of people flocking to shopping centre in Aberdeen and other Scottish cities on Boxing Day and Sunday is thought unlikely to rescue what has been a generally dismal festive trading season this year.

According to research group Springboard, a hoped-for late rush at UK stores failed to materialise and the total number of shoppers at the start of Christmas week was down 9% on a year ago.

Insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor said mild winter weather and early discounting left thousands of retailers struggling during the run-up to Christmas.

Fashion shops were impacted by the warmest December in 70 years, while Black Friday in November led a number of high-street chains – such as H&M, Gap and Jack Wills – to begin sales early, Begbies said.

This resulted in the number of UK retailers in “significant” financial distress rising to 24,737 in the final quarter of 2015, up 2% on a year ago, which Begbies said was “even more concerning, given today’s low inflationary environment and rising disposable incomes across the country”.

Traditional high street stores are particularly suffering as shoppers switch to the internet.

According to Barclaycard, in-store spending slid 2.3% in the first 10 days of December as online spending rose 9.4%.

This had left overall spending virtually flat year on year, Barclaycard said.

Bonmarche and Game Digital have already issued profit warnings and industry experts expect more retailers to follow suit as they count the cost of a poor Christmas.

Veteran analyst Richard Hyman has warned of a “shake-out” of the sector in the new year.

In the SRC’s New Year message, Mr Lonsdale said: “2015 was a year of contrasts, with shoppers benefiting from stiff competition and keen prices … but many of Scotland’s retailers facing a testing period and the industry as a whole witnessing the loss of over 3,500 retail jobs.

“Of keen interest to the industry this coming year will be the outcome of the Holyrood poll and possible EU ballot, and how this affects confidence in the economy and decision-making.”