The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) released the retail sales monitor for November 2005.
It stated that clothing and footwear sales enhanced, but remained lower than a year ago.
Like-for-like sales grew by 1.6% in November, marginally less than the 1.7% in October.
Total sales grew by 4.4% in November, a slight increase in growth from 4.0% in October.
Fiona Moriarty, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium stated that Scottish retailers will be heartened by the positive, steady growth in like-for-like sales in November. Whilst the growth is not as strong as November 2004, it is at a healthier rate than the rest of the UK and showing signs of stability.
Promotions on seasonal goods gave food sales a welcome lift and the cold snap helped boost the sale of winter fashions. However, fierce competition on the high street is still driving prices down, and coupled with increases in fixed costs, means retailers are keen to protect their margins by balancing stock levels and avoiding heavy pre-Christmas discounting. The next few weeks are crucial and retailers will be hoping this steady growth is maintained through December and into the New Year.
Andrew McLaughlin, Group Chief Economist at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group stated that retailers may just be dreaming of a white Christmas, with the cold weather snap helping to lift sales in November.
Across the board, there were signs that the underlying picture continues to improve, but whether retailers will have something to celebrate over Christmas relies upon building on this early momentum. The issue is whether strong promotion and sales activity has merely brought forward spending or whether the upturn is an indication of things to come.
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