June sees retail sales fall further
Written by Peter Walker
05/07/19
Total in-store like-for-like sales fell slightly by 0.8 per cent in June from an already negative base of -1.7 per cent last year, while non-store sales rose by 16.5 per cent last month.
In-store sales have now gone 16 out of the last 17 months without any growth, while non-store sales were at their second lowest rate this year, according to the BDO High Street Sales Tracker, which measures the weekly sales changes of more than 85 retailers with some 10,000 individual stores.
Overall footfall was down for every week of June, compared to the equivalent weeks in 2018. The month began with footfall falling slightly by 0.3 per cent, but by week three this had dropped to 4.9 per cent.
The High Street recorded the worst result of the month, with footfall falling by 7.1 per cent. Only retail parks saw positive footfall this month, with a high of 1.5 per cent in week one.
“One of the wettest Junes on record will have done little to improve already dampened spirits on the High Street,” read a statement from BDO.
“With Brexit displacing most issues, it remains somewhat unclear what future economic policy might look like,” it continued, adding: “In the meantime, the threat of slower wage growth and a weakened pound could put a further squeeze on consumption, with the High Street potentially falling victim.”
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