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Retail store sales plow upward after snow, high street misses out
UK retailers enjoyed their best in-store results since last April as customers flocked back to shops last week after snow had disrupted trading earlier in the month, according to data published on Friday.
The data, provided by the BDO High Street Sales Tracker, showed that like for like instore sales rose 8.22% compared to the same week the previous year as retail parks and shopping centres performed particularly well.
Footfall at retail parks and shopping centres rose by 3.1% and 3.6% respectively, while the high street struggled with a drop of 4.6%, possibly due to uninspired weather.
BDO stated that the comparison to the same week in last year was viable despite it not including mother's day, as the 2017 week saw "warm spring weather drawing shoppers out".
Among specific sectors, lifestyle was streets ahead as 83% of respondents saw positive growth it saw an overall 20.15% increase in in-store sales, constituting the sector's best week since the seven days leading up to Christmas day of 2016.
Fashion and homeware improved to a lesser extent with growth of 2.42% and 3% respectively over the same time last year, with both sectors ending runs of negative weekly results.
Non-store sales saw a huge 22.39% boost in sales in the week, with lifestyle and fashion driving the growth.