HIGH STREET SALES PANIC SEES PRICES CUT BY 90 PC
‘PANICKED’ high street stores are slashing prices by up to 90 per cent in a desperate attempt to win customers.
This year’s autumn sales are offering the deepest price cuts for 15 years – and will be drawn out longer than the usual two-week period to last at least a month. Debenhams, Currys, Laura Ashley, New Look, Jigsaw and House of Fraser are among the stores offering massive discounts to tempt shoppers through their doors this week.
The price cuts have been blamed on a warm early autumn, fierce competition, shoppers moving online and depressed UK consumer spending. Mid-market chains have been hit hardest as retailers fight a price war.
Consultancy Deloitte, which collates high street data, said this autumn’s sales are ‘the deepest we have seen historically’.
Shoppers usually enjoy 50 to 70 per cent off clothes, electricals and home furnishings in the mid-season sales, which start in September. But Debenhams is this year offering discounts of
up to 90 per cent, as is Marks & Spencer, while House of Fraser and labels including Jigsaw are advertising items at up to 70 per cent off.
With Black Friday sales approaching on November 29, stores will now only sell products at full price for a few weeks before the post-Christmas sales begin, retail experts said.
Jason Gordon, of Deloitte, said: ‘The mid-season autumn sales did start earlier this year and they have run on for longer. Whereas traditionally we might expect to see discounts between 30 and 70 per cent, over the last year we are seeing discounts anywhere between 10 and 90 per cent.’
Richard Hyman, an independent retail analyst, said: ‘It has been a dreadful year and the most distressed retail market we’ve seen.
‘Sales of 90 per cent shows panic and it’s damaging to brands.’
The latest retail sales figures suggest there is no end in sight for the high street’s woes. Statistics from the British Retail Consortium show it was the worst September since 1995, when its records began.
Sales were more than 3 per cent lower between July and September this year than the same period last year. House of Fraser, which closed six stores last year after it was bought out of administration, had discounts of up to 70 per cent this week.
High street stalwart Marks & Spencer was offering up to 90 per cent off items at the end of its twoweek sale, which finished last week.
And staff at Urban Outfitters, where the prices of some items were slashed by 75 per cent, said that they had a sale on ‘all the time’.
Clive Black, a retail expert at Shore Capital, said: ‘We’re now in territory when pretty robust companies are starting to get into difficulties. We have cut the fat, now we’re getting to the skin and bone of the high street.’
The rising cost of business rates and staffing stores is also hitting profits. In all, 2,868 UK outlets shut in the first six months of this year, or 110 a week.
Fashion stores have been some of the hardest hit, but restaurants, bars, banks and estate agents are also closing.
Lower margin online businesses such as Asos, Amazon and Boohoo are stealing market share from bricks and mortar stores.
The price cuts come in a year when many well-known high street brands have gone bust or closed dozens of stores.
Office Outlet, formerly known as Staples, went out of business in March, and in August, 40 stores closed when Karen Millen and Coast were rescued from administration by online retailer Boohoo.
Last month, Debenhams said it would be closing 22 stores, putting 1,200 jobs at risk.
Deep discounting is putting pressure on John Lewis to ditch its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price-match vow.
The department store has cut more than 50 per cent off dozens of lines, including autumn and winter clothes from brands including Hobbs, Joules and Gerard Darel.