This week, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 60-year reign, is prepared to go into full swing, which shops hope will spur increased traffic at retail point-of-sale systems.

British retailers have been capitalizing on the event for months now, adorning china, clothing and every imaginable keepsake with the red, white and blue of the Union Jack or, alternatively, the Queen's youthful coronation photo.

High street department store John Lewis told the Financial Times that sales of royal memorabilia, including mementoes both for Diamond Jubilee and of last year's royal wedding, are increasing by 15 percent each week.

"Last year's royal wedding increased consumers' interest in royal memorabilia, and sales of these kinds of items have been consistently higher since then," Anna Rigby, head of buying for home accessories and gifts at John Lewis, told the FT. "People from both the U.K. and abroad want to share in the experience of these national events, and enjoy having something which reminds them of the day."

The event comes at a particular key moment for U.K. stores, as first quarter figures were released this week, revealing that the number of U.K. retailers who went bust in this period increased by 38 percent from the previous quarter, Reuters reports.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 11:40 pm .