UK high street retail sales slip, BDO tracker finds
Adding to the grim news for the retail sector and gloomy implications for the economy, a new survey found UK high streets endured their worst February since 2009 as consumers begin to feel the squeeze amid rising inflation.
Like-for-like sales on UK high street stores fell 2.2%, according to BDO's monthly tracker survey, which was the third month in a row of negative growth.
BDO said Storm Doris, where winds of up to 95mph caused chaos on the roads and rail networks, was a chief cause of the slump.
Looking at the performance by sector, only lifestyle shops enjoyed growth during the month, with LFL sales rising 0.4% thanks to strong sales of St Valentine's Day goods.
Fashion was worst hit, with sales declining 3.4% for the worst result in five months, while homeware sales shrank 1.4% in their first fall since last June.
Even online slowed, with growth moderating to 19.9%.
The BDO numbers follow from official numbers from the Office for National Statistics a few weeks ago that showed retail sales fell in January. Sales were down 0.3% on the month, missing economists’ expectations of a 0.9% increase and following a 2.1% drop in December.
The figures laid bare the intense pressure on consumers’ discretionary spending, said BDO's head of retail and wholesale Sophie Michael.
“Yesterday the Chancellor told us growth in the economy was expected to be higher - and borrowing lower - than forecast in November, but that hasn’t translated into consumer spending power,” she said.
“February saw a perfect storm – both figuratively and literally. Doris kept shoppers away from the high street, but the relatively poor growth of online sales in February shows that the economic headwinds significantly curbed spending.
“The majority of retailers’ price hedges ran out at the end of last year, and inflationary cost pressures have forced them to increase prices – sharply in some cases."
BDO's monthly report is based on the aggregated retail weekly sales of around 85 non-food mid-sized retailers which own a combined 10,000 or so individual stores.