Love the clothes, hate the shops!

New Look sales slump in stores – but fashions are a hit when sold by its rivals

FAILING to tap into popular trends saw retailer New Look struggling for sales again – despite managing to shift its stock on rival websites.

The clothing chain said trading had been disappointing in its first quarter. Sales dropped 4.4pc to £338.7m in the 13 weeks to June 24, from £354.2m the year before.

Sales across stores open for more than a year slumped 7.5pc while sales on its website dropped 0.6pc.

It comes after the retailer reported disappointing full-year results in June, after underestimating trends by not ordering enough colours or styles.

However, New Look said its clothing performed strongly on thirdparty websites, where sales were up 15.7pc. The fashion firm sells its clothes to the likes of Asos and Amazon who cherry-pick hidden gems to sell on their websites.

It suggests that shoppers like New Look’s products, but do not necessarily like buying them from the store itself. Because of the websites’ global reach and varying international fashion tastes, items that do not sell as well in the UK are shifted much more easily.

By comparison, New Look’s website has suffered as it cut back on promotions to encourage customers to buy more items full price.

Like other retailers New Look has been battling to keep up with online firms. It is seeking to beat web upstarts by boosting its marketing spend and has appointed ex-Zara product boss Paula Dumont Lopez to head up its creative team in an attempt to revive sales.

Chief executive Anders Kristiansen said: ‘As expected, the UK market has remained difficult, which has resulted in a disappointing quarter of trading.

‘We remain committed to our long-term strategy of diversifying the business and are confident that we will see improvements, but expect these to take time.’