Strong Christmas Trading boosts UK fashion retailers
Published: 20 January, 2012
2011 was a more positive year for the British high street than initially anticipated as widespread discounting helped boost sales in the run-up to Christmas. Footfall in December rose by 5.1% compared to last year, with local High Streets benefiting the most from the increase in shopper numbers, according to a report from retail footfall specialist Springboard, featured by Pure London.
Its National High Street Index Annual Review indicated that consumers are choosing to ‘shop local’ in order to avoid petrol, transport and parking costs.
Diane Wehrle, research director at Springboard, said: “Overall, 2011 has been a more positive year for the UK high street than originally anticipated and we have seen the first real sign of significant turnaround due to a strong December and a growing trend for consumers to ‘shop local’.”
Like-for-like sales were up 2.2% year-on-year in December, with clothing and footwear among the star performers, according to data published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and business advisory firm KPMG.
Retailers’ willingness to take a hit on margins in order toattract customers appears to have paid off as the last month of the year saw shoppers queue up to take advantage of various deals and promotions. Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday also added another big trading day in the festive run-up.
Among those who saw strong Christmas trading were department stores John Lewis, Debenhams and Supergroup.
Like-for-like sales at John Lewis were up by 6.2% over the Christmas period and the group also broke its record for its biggest ever week, taking a total of £133.1m in the week to December 17. Online sales were up by a staggering 27.9% on last year, with fashion sales rising by 10.3% in the five weeks to December 31.
Debenhams also saw record sales in the final week before Christmas and a 6.5% increase in like-for-like sales over the festive period. Supergroup, which owns young fashion labels Superdry and Cult, was another retailer to benefit from better weather than last year’s snow and ice. Strong Christmas sales boosted the business’ like-for-like sales by 9.3% in December alone.
