You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
UK retail sales sank by 0.5% like-for-like in June, decelerating towards the end of the month, but the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said it is too early to pin the decline on Brexit.
The BRC has released monthly retail figures for June, showing that while like-for-like sales decreased by 0.5% when they had increased by 1.8% from the preceding year, sales were up by 0.2% on a total basis.
However, the organisation said it was “too early” to mark the decline as a trend triggered by the UK's decision to Brexit on 23rd June.
Helen Dickinson c.e.o of the BRC, said: “While sales did slow towards the end of the month, it is too early to define this as a trend. The month outturn was predominantly driven by a decline in sales in the fashion categories and isn’t a surprise given that June 2015 saw record growth in clothing and footwear.”
She added: “Britain's retailers remain open for business. The EU referendum vote has not changed their relentless pursuit of delivering for customers day in, day out or their investment in meeting the needs of fundamental changes in the way people shop, driven by digital and technology.”
Dickinson added that any price increases following the plunge in the pound would depend on a combination of factors including further changes in the pound, commodity prices and the challenge for retailers to move pricing given the intensity of competition.
“So, there won’t be any instant shocks as any changes would take time to feed through,” she said.
Despite a 4.3% drop in high street footfall, according to Springboard Research, print book sales held up relatively well last week. Nielsen BookScan figures showed print book sales were up 8.4% in value terms to £25.06m, and up 6.8% in value terms year on year. Volume, meanwhile, was also up: by 10.1% week on week (to 3.2m), and 1.9% year on year.
Retail analyst Nick Bubb told The Bookseller: “In the short-term, book retailers should be benefiting a little from the unseasonal weather and huge interest in economics and politics post-Brexit… In the medium term, books are a ‘low ticket’ purchase that shouldn't be much affected by the approaching UK economic recession.”