Black Friday ‘failed to restore confidence on the high street’
BLACK FRIDAY spending was not enough to restore confidence to the high street ahead of a “potentially tough” Christmas for retailers, new figures suggest.
Overall like-for-like sales fell 1.3 per cent last month following the worst October on record, according to accountancy firm BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker.
Fashion sales fell 2.5 per cent year on year, cancelling out positive figures for lifestyle goods, up 0.9 per cent, and homeware items, up 2.2 per cent.
The sales drop on the high street came despite year-onyear growth of 1.1 per cent over the week following Black Friday, which fell on November 24.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is regarded as the first day of the Christmas shopping season.
The first week of November also saw a year-on-year sales lift of 0.4 per cent as the cold weather sparked sales of winter clothing.
However, shoppers kept their wallets firmly shut during the middle two weeks of November, despite widespread discounting in the lead-up to the shopping event, with sales down 4.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent year-on-year respectively, “and the signs point to a potentially tough Christmas on the high street”, BDO said.
Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO, said all the signs pointed to a tough Christmas on the high street.
She said: “Many stores have struggled so far in the final quarter of this year, and a small rise in sales over Black Friday won’t be nearly enough to deliver a positive like-for-like result in the fourth quarter.
“We believe that the fall in consumer confidence combined with the drop in real earnings due to rising prices is very likely to lead to shoppers cutting back on their discretionary spending whilst maintaining their spend on festive food and drink.
“Retailers will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s massive last-minute festive buying spree, when we saw double-digit likefor-like growth in the week leading up to Christmas.
“It will be a tough decision for retailers on whether to go early on discounting or hold their nerve and retain their stock at near to full price for that possible final-week surge.”