This report looks at those events in the calendar that provide retailers with opportunities to encourage shoppers to spend a little bit more – such as Valentine’s Day, Easter and Halloween. Most of these events are substantial in absolute value terms – many generate hundreds of millions of pounds for the retail sector.

Christmas was not included in our consumer survey, as it is such a major event in its own right – but we include data on the impact of Christmas in our sections on retail sales, e-commerce and advertising across the year.

Coverage in our consumer survey includes Valentine’s Day, Easter, other religious festivals (such as Diwali, Hanukkah, Ramadan), Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, bank holidays and back-to-school (autumn), Halloween, Guy Fawkes night/bonfire night and New Year’s.

The consumer survey for this report also asked shoppers how the weather and major sports events (such as the Olympics) impacted on their shopping behaviour.

This report is focused on the impact of occasions for the retail sector, but some questions in our consumer survey also asked about spending on services (such as dining out or trips away) to place retail spending in context.

Our consumer survey asked a representative panel of respondents eight questions:

• What types of products (eg flowers, cards, chocolate) or activities (eg dining out) shoppers had spent money on for each of three seasonal events that take place in/around the spring time - Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day and Easter - in 2014.

• What types of products (eg food/drink, fancy dress, decorations) or activities (eg going to parties) shoppers had spent money on for each of two seasonal events that take place in/around the autumn time – Halloween and bonfire night - in 2013.

• Which types of retailers (eg supermarket, online-only retailer, occasion specialist) shoppers had bought products from for the various seasonal events that occurred in the last 12 months – ranging from Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Eve.

• How much money shoppers had spent on buying products for each of the various seasonal events that occurred in the last 12 months – ranging from Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Eve.

• Attitudes towards, and shopping behaviour around Easter.

• Activities typically undertaken on bank holidays.

• How the weather impacts on shopping behaviour.

• How major sports events (such as the football World Cup or the Olympics) impact on shopping behaviour.

Christmas is covered in detail in the Mintel report, Christmas Shopping Habits – UK, February 2014.

Readers may also find it useful to refer to the Mintel report, Seasonal Lifestyles – UK, July 2013.

Financial definitions used are:

• Sales: turnover as reported by the company, excluding VAT.

• Operating profits: pre-tax profits plus interest, less non-trading income such as the sale of fixed assets and any exceptional items, including provisions.

• Pre-tax profits: the net trading profit after deducting all operating costs including depreciation and finance charges, but before deduction of tax, dividends and other appropriations.

• Operating margin: operating profits as a percentage of sales.

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.

In general, all company sales data are quoted excluding VAT.

Consumer spending data and retail sales data (including forecasts) are quoted including VAT unless specifically stated otherwise.

The UK reduced the standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15% on 1 December 2008, before increasing it to 17.5% on 1 January 2010 and 20% on 4 January 2011.