Expensive purchases are becoming more commonplace as consumers become increasingly confident even if they don’t feel particularly flush, a new report states.
The UK GfK index of consumer confidence, released on Monday (September 29), has revealed a “period of stability over the past five months”, indicating that consumers are currently more comfortable making large purchases even if they are no better off than in previous months.
Confidence in making more expensive purchases was found to be the only major indicator to increase this month, marketingweek.co.uk reports, despite the fact consumer morale dipped two points between August and September.
The Major Purchase Index increased one point – 14 points higher than September 2013. The Savings Index decreased one point, but it is still eight points higher than it was a year ago, while consumer confidence overall is also higher than the same period last year, retailtimes.co.uk notes.
Nick Moon, managing director of social research at GfK, said: “Whilst consumers are not feeling any better off overall, what can be seen as good news for retailers is the measure for ‘right time for major purchases’ which has shown increases recently and is now the highest it’s been since February 2014.”
Author: Jack Stanton
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