This year, retail’s busiest period overlaps with the first winter World Cup, a competition with a long history of positively impacting consumer spending. According to data from Barclaycard, consumer spending rose by 5.1% as “World Cup fever” took hold during the previous tournament in 2018.
However, analysts acknowledge the impact of a winter
World Cup is more challenging to predict. Matt phone number database Newman, category director for consumer electronics at Currys, says the winter tournament represents a “step into the unknown” as two of the biggest drivers behind TV sales collide.
TV sales typically spike ahead of major football tournaments and Black Friday is the biggest annual driver of TV sales. This year, England will play the USA on Black Friday in its second game of the tournament, which sounds like the perfect combination for TV sales in the UK.
The risk for some retailers is that consumer spending and foot traffic in stores could decline on match days and during the game itself, in particular. The big question is whether England playing on Black Friday will enhance or hinder sales – or, whether the two events will partially cancel each other out.
How did the 2018 World Cup affect search interests?
When analysing the impact of major with visible menus and easy-to-click sporting events like the World Cup, there are three distinct phases to consider: the build-up to the tournament, the duration of the tournament and the immediate period after the World Cup has finished.
You can see this from search volumes for sports and fitness queries during and either side of the 2018 World Cup. As expected, the data shows a linear increase during the build-up to the tournament with interest rising further during the competition.
The graph above shows how search interest in
England peaked on match days and china numbers increased as the national team progressed further in the competition. You can also see the comparative decline in interest on the day of the final that England missed out on after a disappointing semi-final loss to Croatia.
This highlights a key variable when analysing consumer behaviour during a Word Cup: how far the national teams progress. The further teams like England progress in Qatar this winter, the more impact the tournament will have on consumer habits in home nations.