Feature: Department stores are top choice

A recent Christmas Shopping Survey carried out by Deloitte has revealed that gift vouchers have jumped from ninth to third place in the nation’s top ten gift choices for 2006. As a result, I am very pleased to report, they were dubbed as ‘the rising stars’ of retail. This is a fantastic accolade for the gift card and voucher industry.

Perhaps one of the survey’s overarching conclusions – that ‘the battleground for retailers today is about convenience, value, product range and availability’ –accounts for this rise in popularity. Consumers evidently view gift vouchers as fulfilling all of these criteria thanks to the versatility and freedom of choice that they afford.

The increasing popularity of the gift voucher will also come as good news for The Va’s department store members that were identified as a top choice of shopping venue with 25 per cent of consumers stating that they intended on purchasing most of their Christmas gifts from a department store.

Although department stores have suffered somewhat from the rise in popularity of the expanding ‘high street’, they still manage to tick all of the relevant boxes when it comes to offering the key purchase benefits of convenience, quality and variety. It is this type of amenity that makes department store retailers such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and Debenhams an invaluable asset to the sales promotion industry.

“It is the wide range of choice, including popular high street favourites together with fashionable designer labels that ensures that our gift vouchers make a fantastic sales promotion”, explains Bernhard Grant, Business Controller at Debenhams. Indeed, it is the success of this variety that has kept sales promotion at a hearty 10 to 20 per cent of the total business mix for many department stores.

The real advantage that department store gift vouchers offer is that they can be used to purchase anything from clothing to electrical goods to furnishings to food and beverages across a variety of brands, making it attractive to the widest possible range of consumer. John Bohan, Account Manager Corporate Gift Vouchers at John Lewis says “a department store gift voucher offers a tangible choice for the recipient. Our own gift voucher can be used on over half a million different products in John Lewis stores throughout the country.”

Additionally, department stores have the resources to offer extra customer services that will enhance the overall experience for the recipient and add further value to the sales promotion. Clare Rutherford from House of Fraser says: “not only do we have the capacity to offer a huge selection of merchandise for both sexes of all ages, we can also offer a range of in-store services such as a luxurious personal shopping facility to make the gift that extra bit special”.

So whilst the Deloitte survey unearths disheartening results for the 26 per cent of men hoping to receive a flat screen TV this year when only six per cent of consumers are planning on buying one as a gift, it seems the gift voucher remains the safest bet for a Merry Christmas.