November Retail Sales Fall
Posted by: Hpratley , 07 December 2011
It is gloomy news for retail and the high street at the moment, with news that customers are not and will not be spending as much as last year.
A GfK study backed this up saying that 36% of consumers claim they will be cutting back this Christmas; this was up 10% compared with last year.
The British Retail Consortium reported that for November retail sales fell by 1.6pc on a like-for-like basis. Retail sales only grew 0.7% in November, which was the weakest growth since May.
With the unseasonably warm weather in November, clothing and Health & Beauty retail sales were both down. Clothing sales were down year-on-year for the sixth month in a row and Health and beauty suffered its first year-on-year fall for two years.
Food and drink sales however did increase.
The poor sales performance is also affecting jobs, with 39% of retailers reducing employment this month and just 13% of retailers increasing employment.
Experian Footfall, reported that there were 4.1% fewer consumers out at shopping centres and high streets at the weekend, compared with the same period last year.
The GfK NOP Consumer Confidence Index stood at -32 in October. Nick Moon, Managing Director of GfK NOP Social Research, commented "The latest index shows consumer confidence at its 10th lowest figure since it began in 1974. In fact, it is only the third occasion in its history that it has breached -32”.
With consumer confidence down and economic uncertainty December looks likely to follow in Novembers footsteps with lower than predicted sales figures and the high street continuing to struggle.
Last year’s FSP January sales report however showed that even with similarly gloomy retail news in November and December of 2010, January produced surprisingly strong retail trading results.
The best retailers were those who recognised that UK retailing had changed. The rise of edge of town and out-of-town retailing had a far greater effect than on-line sales. Retailers that failed to develop an effective out-of-town format were over-represented amongst the strugglers. Others, such as HMV, found their product superseded
Every January FSP produces the Christmas sales report for the previous year. To see the actual Christmas sales results with FSP analysis for 2011, FSP will be issuing the Christmas Sales Report on Friday 6th January, with regular updates throughout January.
You can see last year's report here.
Tags: RETAILERS, FUTURE OF RETAILING, CHRISTMAS SALES REPORT