Sharp losses across the board as good weather, lower footfall hit retailers hard
Sales figures from BDO Stoy Hayward’s High Street Sales Tracker for the week ending 13 September revealed total overall like-for-likes tumbling by 4.0%, the sharpest drop for three weeks.
Non-fashion: +0.1% Up against extremely tough prior year comparisons, non-fashion stores struggled to break even. Demand was fairly subdued in most categories with only a handful of stores reporting positive growth.
Fashion: -4.9% Fashion retailers had a fairly bad week falling afoul of tough comparisons, as well as the Debenhams early season promotion. Lingerie and footwear were the weakest performers, with impulse spending appearing to suffer the most, not helped by lower footfall levels.
Homewares: -10.9% Homewares had a difficult week, with takings dropping by double-digit levels, a situation not witnessed by the sector for over two months. Although a return to the days of consistent negative growth seen during the first four months of the year seems unlikely, the recent good run seems to have ended.
Non-Store: +34.2% Compared to recent weeks non-store sales were considerably softer, although still elevated, registering the weakest level growth since mid July.
Don Williams, Head of Retail at BDO Stoy Hayward, says: “Heavily influenced by strong comparisons last year, results were broadly worse than anticipated this week, with only non-fashion registering marginal growth. In other areas trade was down relatively steeply, with overall like-for-likes tumbling by 4.0%, the sharpest drop for three weeks.
Early season discounting by Debenhams probably accounted for some of this lost trade, while sunny Saturday weather contributed to lower core footfall levels. Given the weak comparisons that are ahead sales should start to become more positive in the coming weeks. However, it is still genuinely hard to predict trading patterns, with shoppers remaining wary of full priced purchases.” he concludes.
Sales this week last year
Sales were up in all sectors this week last year, on the back of seasonal autumn weather that helped encourage take-up of new season ranges. A number of retailers also ran special promotions that helped boost trade, with non-fashion (+9%), fashion (+7.4%) and homewares (+6.4%).
