High street sales shine in hot weather - BDO

High street sales at small and medium sized retailers enjoyed their best June for six years, with the warm weather helping clothing and fashion to strut its stuff for the first time this year.

Overall, like-for-like retail sales were up 1.3% in June, according to BDO's sales tracker, though this was compared to a negative base of -3.6% for the same month last year, the worst June in more than a decade due to Brexit vote uncertainty.

Crossing into the week ending 02 July, overall sales were also up 1.06% for that week alone.

By sector, clothing and fashion stores performed the best, with LFL sales outperforming other sub-sectors for the first time since January 2016.

LFL sales for clothing retailers were up 1.4% in June, but versus a 4.9% decline for the same month last year. Sales were up by +5.9% in the first week or the month and by 8.3% in the last but with negative results in between amid the General Election.

Crossing into July, fashion sales dipped 2.03% despite quite a soft comparative from a year ago.

Lifestyle stores saw LFL sales up 1.2%, boosted by strong tourist numbers, Father’s Day and the good weather, followed by homewares up 0.5% - as indicated by Dunelm's impressive update out on Friday.

Non-store sales were up 22.2%, with solid online spending and only falling slightly mid-month when the weather was at its hottest.

"While sales have improved on a dismal June last year, it will be the months ahead that will really test the resilience of retailers," BDO said, noting that the CBI's June monthly retail sales balance showed that retailers are the most downbeat about the month ahead since last autumn.

"As inflation continues to rise against stagnating wage growth, it will be imperative for retailers to maximise the opportunities that the summer brings, and walk the increasingly fine line of balancing discounting with margin squeeze."

The monthly performance report is based on the aggregated retail weekly sales of around 85 non-food medium sized retailers, covering roughly 10,000 individual stores.