Around 13,000 Scottish retail jobs were lost between 2016 and 2018, according to a new report called ‘Road to Retail Recovery’ by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), which found that £3.48 billion in annual turnover was lost from the industry between 2014 and 2018. These figures are likely to ‘severely worsen’ when the full account of 2020 is reported.

To tackle the decline in traditional retail, SRC recommended the Scottish government—ahead of the Scottish parliament election scheduled for May 6—for a policy moratorium for one year after the suppression of the COVID-19 virus to ‘allow businesses to recover’, an organisation press release said.

SRC director David Lonsdale said the Holyrood election comes as the industry hits the ‘very apex of the current retail revolution’, stating that the pandemic has ‘accelerated the existing trends in retail’ including “driving customers towards digital, weakened demand, and put retailers under unparalleled pressure”.

“Last year saw the worst ever retail sales figures, a six year peak in shop vacancies, and shopper footfall slump by a third; which comes off the back of three years which saw 13,000 retail jobs lost, and a £3.48 billion reduction in annual turnover since 2014,” he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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