Numbers of late night shoppers plummeted this Christmas amid fears more and more Bermudians are buying presents over the internet or overseas.

Crowds have been “a real disappointment” despite the month’s programme of Friday night festivity, according to shopkeepers and the Chamber of Commerce.

People buying presents on-line or abroad, bad weather and families leaving their shopping until the last minute have all been blamed for the slump.

Shopkeepers say take-up of Sunday shopping has also been slow — but insist overall sales have remained impressive throughout the festive season.

They say they have been attempting to come up with innovative ways of competing with the internet or overseas.

Chamber of Commerce executive director Diane Gordon said: “I have been out every Friday night for the late night shopping. I can recall evenings in the past which have been much busier than this year.

“Walking up and down, looking at crowds on the streets, they have been very quiet. It’s been a real disappointment to us.

“Where are the people? Are they on the internet? Probably. There’s a lot of people out there who don’t want to shop, they want to go on-line.

“You need to realise your customer base is very important and you have to constantly be nurturing the customers. It’s not easy, but many of them are doing it. I have spoken to many shopkeepers who say takings have definitely been on a par with last year.” Mrs. Gordon stressed that the Uptown Downtown train, which aimed to take people to parts of Hamilton they would otherwise miss, such as Court Street, had been “hugely successful”.

However, she said three late-night Friday schedules were severely hit by bad weather. She added that town was extremely busy yesterday. “It’s like everybody has decided to leave everything to the last minute,” she said.

George Grundmuller, chief executive of Phoenix Stores, which has a host of shops across the Island, called for extra sparkle to be injected into next year’s programme.

He said this could be done by closing Reid Street to traffic every night of the week so more entertainment such as carol singing can be set up. This year, Reid Street was only shut on Friday nights.

Mr. Grundmuller said: “Late night shopping has not been as strong as in previous years. It’s been disappointing. Especially when the weather wasn’t great, people just didn’t bother coming to town.

“I would like to see Reid Street closed in the evenings before Christmas, so it can become a destination. People would make a trip to that part of town to see what the activities are like, to see the carol singing. It can be something the families can enjoy together and take in the festive season — and then they would visit the shops as well. I would like to see more activities organised by the merchants, and by the Chamber of Commerce.

“We will address it next year before Christmas and try to learn from what happened this year.”

Mr. Grundmuller insisted the company’s overall Christmas sales were up this year. Somers Cooper, co-chairman of the Chamber’s retail sales, said the situation was under investigation.

“It seems that some traders are not as happy with late-night numbers as they were in the past,” he said.

“We are now trying to determine why that might be. The sales on the whole are still fairly strong, but I guess people are shopping more during regular hours and busier going to social functions and things in the evening.”

Traders said on-line shopping was becoming an increasingly significant threat but they were finding ways to remain competitive.

“The internet is a big factor,” said Mr. Grundmuller. “It is something which is here and will not go away. It puts the local merchants at a disadvantage. Internet companies don’t have a store front to maintain, they don’t have a physical plant, they don’t have people to employ. Surely this impacts on local businesses.

“The challenge is to come up with new ideas and be as competitive as we can. Either you have to become bigger yourself - give yourself more buying power - or you have to become innovative and make up some of the difference with extra services.

“Shoppers can see the goods they are buying here and know what they are getting, whereas buying over the internet you never know if it’s going to be fake. Also, by the time you’ve paid your 20 percent duty it is not so cheap.”

Mr. Grundmuller said he had been stressing the value of shopping locally through an advert campaign on the radio and his firm’s website. Jack ‘N’ Jill’s toy shop, in Park Road, is also having to adapt to modern day competition.

Store manager Meta Davidson said: “I have been around a long time and we used to get loads of people doing last-minute shopping. We have been busy this Christmas, but it’s not like it used to be.

“I can’t compete with overseas and the huge stores. But if you are shopping on-line you can’t always see what you get.

“We have an old-fashioned way — you can come in and see millions of things, and I think people still like that.”

Paul Dean, general manager at Marks and Spencer, said sales had gone up this Christmas because of the closure of rival stores.

Mr. Dean argued late night shopping had been successful but added Sunday shopping had been quiet. He said: “Christmas sales have been very good — certainly an improvement on the previous year. A lot of it is to do with the impact of Trimingham’s no longer being here. I think people who would normally have shopped there are coming here instead. We’ve been having a quiet time on Sundays. I don’t think the interest is there because people in Bermuda have traditionally not gone shopping on Sundays.

“Some people will do their shopping overseas, but retailers have to live with that and do everything they can to make sure we are competitive. It’s difficult to gauge how overseas shopping affects us, but if people have access to a computer on a daily basis then they are going to import some things themselves.”

Customs staff were unable to reveal any information about the numbers of goods imported in the run-up to Christmas this year.