71
Fashion Jobs
L'OREAL GROUP
Multi-Brand Education Manager
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
L'OREAL GROUP
E-Commerce Manager
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
BEIERSDORF
Brand Manager
Permanent · DURBAN
G-STAR
Key Account Manager
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
ESTÉE LAUDER COMPANIES
Marketing & Sales Operations Manager (Sub Saharan Africa)
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
ESTÉE LAUDER COMPANIES
Marketing & Sales Operations Manager (Sub Saharan Africa)
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
PUMA
Payroll Administrator
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
ADIDAS
Senior Manager Sales: Shoe Channel - em South
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
ADIDAS
Senior HR Business Partner (6-Months Maternity Cover)
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
L'OREAL GROUP
Product Manager
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
TREK
Country Manager
Permanent · SANDTON
L'OREAL GROUP
E-Commerce Key Account Manager
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
ADIDAS
ic pp Data & Analytics Specialist - em
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
BEIERSDORF
Precision Marketing & Audience Specialist
Permanent · DURBAN
CLINIQUE
Clinique - Roamer - Edgars Eastgate, Gauteng - 40 Hours - Full-Time - Permanent
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
PANDORA
Sales Assistant Ppt 96 Hours Balito
Permanent · DURBAN
L'OREAL GROUP
Data Analyst
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
HTNK
High-End Fashion/Denim Designer
Permanent · JOHANNESBURG
H&M
Talent Acquisition Specialist
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
ADIDAS
Specialist Franchise Excellence - Ems Africa Export
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
LOVISA
Full Time Team Member | v&a Waterfront, Cape Town
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
LOVISA
Store Manager | v&a Waterfront, Cape Town
Permanent · CAPE TOWN
Published
Sep 5, 2017
Reading time
2 minutes
Download
Download the article
Print
Text size

Back-to-school and autumn product help UK sales rise says BRC

Published
Sep 5, 2017

No sooner did we hear from Ipsos Retail Performance that retail footfall dropped across the UK last month than another key measure of retail strength actually showed sales rising during August.


Autumn ranges helped boost UK spending in August



The latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed that back-to-school spending and enthusiasm for new-in fashion helped comparable sales rise 1.3% in August. That compared to a 0.9% dip in the same month a year earlier when the post-Brexit vote blues were still a major factor.

The BRC-KPMG report also said that total sales rose 2.4%, again better than a decline (0.3%) a year ago and also the strongest rise since Easter.

And in the three months to August, non-food retail sales rose 0.6% on a comparable basis and 0.9% in total, beating the 12-month average growth rate of 0.6%.

The sales monitor also showed non-food sales rising 11% online in August, again beating the three-month and 12-month averages.

But BRC chief Helen Dickinson was far from upbeat. “These figures tell a less positive story about the health of consumer spending than it might seem at first glance. Non-food sales have only just recovered to levels seen two years ago, after a dismal August in 2016. Stark challenges lurk around the corner for the retail industry,” she warned.

She added that consumer purchasing decisions are “very much dictated by a shrinking pool of discretionary consumer spend, with the amount of money in people’s pockets set to be dented by inflation and statutory rises in employee pension contributions in a few months’ time.”

But the big question is, how do the reasonably positive figures tally with the weak footfall to stores? As well as consumers buying more online, one option is that shoppers are making fewer stores trips but are buying more when they do venture out.

The internet is probably to blame/thank here too as research done online before shoppers even set foot across a store’s threshold means they know just what they should find there and exactly where to go as an alternative if the items concerned are out of stock. No more of the endless traipsing around stores that many of us remember from the last century.

What other factors could have been having an impact? Well, as mentioned, back-to-school shopping is key. Unlike in the US at present where the back-to-school season is spreading from early summer well into the autumn, it seems that UK parents are still cramming their shopping into August.

We may also have to thank the dull weather during last month. We’ve already heard from John Lewis that its shoppers were buying autumn outerwear in August with the dull, wet weather reminding them that the cold weather season was just around the corner. If replicated across the country, it could help wipe out the memory of some recent years when Indian summers in September have severely dented sales of knits, coats and jackets.

Copyright © 2024 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.