Consumers have grown more conscientious with their spending, with rising food prices leading many to start looking for the best deals.
Discount holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday proved popular with consumers this year. Black Friday sales were particularly strong, despite the relatively poor turnout. Retailers had reported a particular uplift in sales of electrical household appliances.
Ruth Gregory at Capital Economics expects inflation to start to ease back and pay growth to recover a little in the new year, which could give retailers some extra support into 2018.