UK retail sales rose 4.7% YoY in July 2021: BRC-KPMG

Over the three months to July, in-store sales of non-food items grew 64.9 per cent on a total basis. This was above the 12-month average growth of 20 per cent. On a 2-year basis, stores saw a decline of 3.6 per cent over the last three months, according to the BRC-KPMG report.

Over the three-months to July, non-food retail sales increased 24.6 per cent on a total basis and 17.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis. This is above the 12-month total average decline of 14.4 per cent. For the month of July, non-food was in growth year-on-year. On a 2-year basis, non-food sales saw growth of 12.5 per cent for the three-months to July.

Online non-food sales increased by 0.6 per cent in July, against a growth of 41 per cent in July 2020. Non-food online penetration rate decreased to 48.4 per cent this July from 54 per cent in July 2020. While down on last year, it was up on the 29.7 per cent seen at the same point in 2019.

“July continued to see strong sales, although growth has started to slow. The lifting of restrictions did not bring the anticipated in-store boost, with the wet weather leaving consumers reluctant to visit shopping destinations. Online sales remained strong, and with weddings and other social events back on for the summer calendar, formalwear and beauty all began to see notable improvement, so fashion outlets in particular saw a bounce back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive, British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)