The discount frenzy has happened as mid- and end-of-season autumn sales continued into December and combined with a record Black Friday promotional period to “set the precedent for deepest-ever pre-Christmas discounting”.Deloitte has analysed more than 0.8m online and in-store products and said the record 43.8% figure this December is 0.2% deeper than the same time last year.

So why is this happening? While successful Black Friday promotions this year saw some of the highest ever sales volumes and helped shift stock from shop floors, there’s “a pre-existing oversupply,” Deloitte explained, adding that this “could see a tipping point reached imminently, as retailers discount further to shift goods”.Current discounts on the high street range from a fairly tame 8% to a pretty desperate 78%, with the biggest savings to be found in the mid-market clothing category, according to Deloitte’s MarkdownEdge analysis. That mid-market clothing sector is already discounted by 30%, and could see reductions averaging 55% by Boxing Day, we’re told.Jason Gordon, lead consumer analytics partner at Deloitte, said the markdowns are coming after a “challenging year” for retailers mixed with the Black Friday effect. While there had been lots of speculation that Black Friday’s appeal was waning, quite the opposite seems to have happened this year, which will have impacted the ability of retailers to charge full price during December. Gordon spoke of “a blending of promotions, one seeping into the next, and a steady price decline rather than a steep Boxing Day drop, reminiscent of Christmases past”.And as for Boxing Day, Deloitte thinks the discounts usually associated with that day could actually come 48 hours earlier.“Whilst Boxing Day itself, falling on a Thursday, is likely to draw footfall on the high street, those shoppers who find themselves in-store on Christmas Eve may pick up the same discounts early,” Gordon said. And online, Boxing Day-style discounts are likely to happen on Christmas Day as consumers show themselves to be increasingly ready to tear themselves away from the festivities for some retail therapy.