Retail sales improve further in November, BRC survey finds

UK retail sales continued to improve in November, according to a survey published on Tuesday, with online taking a record quarter-chunk of the total as internet shopping proved a major factor in the Black Friday promotional week.

The British Retail Consortium and KPMG found like-for-like retail sales were up by 0.6% in November compared to what was a decline seen in the same month last year, while total sales rose 1.3%.

November's performance was ahead of the twelve month momentum of 1.1%, but slightly behind the three-month momentum of 1.6%.

Over the three-months to November, food sales were flat on a like-for-like basis and increased 1.5% on a total basis, ahead of the 12-month average of 0.7%.

Non-food retail sales in the UK rose 1.5% on a like-for-like basis and 1.7% on a total basis, also faster than the 1.4% 12-month average. This is also the highest non-food three-month average total growth since March.

Non-food online sales rose by 10.9% in November year-on-year, narrowly ahead of the 10.7% three-month run-rate, meaning a whopping 27.6% of non-food sales were online, with online accounting for 2.8% sales growth against a 1.1% decline for store sales.

Not everyone benefitted from Black Friday, said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.

"Retailers of goods that don’t traditionally benefit from the event, such as clothing, saw weaker Black Friday week sales this year, but made the most of the increased online traffic in the weeks building up to the 25th November by offering promotions to capture shoppers browsing for early bargains."

Overall, she noted that consumer spending remained stable, although very much value-driven with a focus towards products on promotion.

"With an extra weekend to shop for Christmas this year, nerves will be tested in December as retailers choose their strategies to attract the last minute gift shoppers."

Analysts at Shore Capital said Black Friday was spread over a longer period of time by many operators, which levelled off some of the peak activity and made it a less challenging operating activity.

"Retail sales in October and November 2017 have been quite strong, which augurs well to our minds for the forthcoming key Christmas trading period... Non-food is likely to be more varied with the online channel expected to remain a key feature of activity. We expect increasingly canny apparel retailers to be reasonably well positioned for the peak month. However, in the larger ticket home market (e.g. floor coverings) there have been one or two signs of weakness, which may be indicative of consumers' uncertainty about the economic outcome in CY2017."