Fashion fared badly in April with sales falling, new BDO report shows

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 3, 2019

Good weather, school holidays and Easter all failed to rescue the UK’s suffering physical retail sector last month. The latest BDO High Street Sales Tracker (HSST) showed sales down 0.4% year-on-year in April from a poor comparative base of -3.8% for the same month last year.

It also marked the third month of in-store sales decline so far this year and 15 months of disappointing sales for the sector.

And there was even worse news for the fashion category as in-store sales here declined 0.8%, again from a poor base of -3.3%. 

Other sectors did badly too with lifestyle sales down 0.4%, but at least homewares managed a 0.6% rise, although this hardly made up for the massive 8.8% drop of a year ago.

So did online take up the slack? Yes it did. Non-store like-for-like sales grew by 18.3% in April as shoppers continue to head online.

Sophie Michael, Head of Retail and Wholesale at BDO, said that while a marginal drop in sales “may not on the face of it seem significant, it has to be taken in the context of a low benchmark and, crucially, what should have been perfect shopping conditions last month. 

“With record warm weather, Easter holidays and more Brits taking staycations, April should have been a bumper month for high street retailers. Instead, these factors couldn’t prevent further decline.”

Michael added that while real wage growth and low unemployment usually offer hope for retailers, these are still not filtering through to spending. Consumer confidence remains very low, but “changing consumer habits and the gradual shift to ‘just buying less’ as ethical and sustainable efforts gather pace could also be playing a part in the consistently poor retail performance.”