Our first week of reporting Christmas sales shows a drop from the first week of the past two years but higher volumes than the equivalent week in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
With the weather effecting overall garden centre sales and footfall we’ll need to wait until further through October to see what the trend for the season will be.
In terms of early Christmas Bestsellers, personalised items are again at the top of the list, pink factors highly in popularity and Christmas story books for children, particularly Winne the Pooh, are selling well. There are five Pooh Christmas storybooks in the chart this week.
Within the GTN Christmas Top 50 there are three Christmas Pet products with the Petface Brussel Sprout Toy joining the Armitages Dog and Cat Advent calendars in the list of bestselling lines.
Lindt’s Teddy Bear 10g is the first Christmas No 1 of the year.
History & Heraldry’s Personalised Gingerbread Hanging Decoration are the highest new entry of the season, in at No 5.
Armitages Dog Advent Calendar is the highest placed advent calendar, for pets and children, at No 9. Last week it even outsold the Lego Harry Potter advent calendar which was at No 25.