Christmas rush can’t save falling clothes sales
A LAST-MINUTE rush for Christmas presents, which lifted retail sales in December, was a silver lining to what was otherwise a bleak year for the British fashion market, according to the latest figures.
The British Retail Consortium revealed that retail sales in December were 1 per cent up on the year before on a like-for-like basis. Retailers including Marks and Spencer unveiled upbeat figures for the holiday season.
But results from Kantar Worldpanel, a leading analyst of shoppers’ behaviour, reveal that the British fashion market – including clothing, footwear and accessories – saw sales for the whole of 2016 fall 2 per cent on the year before. That is the steepest decline in the market since August 2009, and knocked almost £750million off the value of fashion sales in 2016.
Glen Tooke, consumer insight director at Kantar, said: ‘It’s been another difficult year for British fashion as we’ve seen still more value driven out of the market. A 2 per cent drop in sales is a serious cause for concern, particularly when you consider that the lowest point the market reached in the wake of recession was a 3.1 per cent slump in May 2009.’
But online retailers saw growth of 7 per cent year-onyear, while independent shops improved sales by 3.2 per cent.
Tooke said: ‘The anticipated cold snap over the next couple of days could be a glimmer of hope as shoppers go in search of warmer clothing, but as ever it will be those retailers that manage to differentiate their offer most effectively that are best placed to take advantage’.
Smaller retailers were among the biggest winners in the Christmas and New Year shopping season with sales up 18per cent compared to last year.
A survey of 1,500 small to medium sized retailers by point-of-sale software provider Vend found a huge rise in their sales between November 25 (Black Friday) and January 7.
The biggest spending days of the season were December 23, followed by December 17, dubbed ‘Panic Saturday’, and December 10. Small Business Saturday, on December 3, came fifth on the list.