The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) has responded to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for August 2024.
The report, which can be downloaded here, has highlighted that UK total retail sales increased by 1% year-on-year in August, against a growth of 4.1% in August 2023.
Non-food sales decreased 1.7% year-on-year over the three-months to August, compared to a decline of 0.2% in August 2023. This is above the 12-month average decline of 2.0%. For the month of August, Non-Food was in decline year-on-year.
In-store non-food sales over the three months to August decreased 2.8% year-on-year, against a growth of 1.3% in August 2023. This is below the 12-month average decline of 2.1%.
Online Non-Food sales increased by 1.5% year-on-year in August, compared to an average decline of 1.7% in August 2023.
BIRA ceo, Andrew Goodacre said: “Encouraging sales trends in August across all categories give us hope that this is a sign of things to come. No doubt a spell of good weather helped, but it could also be that consumer confidence is slowly returning.
“However, we must remember that higher sales do not always mean higher profits, as we know that many retailers are discounting heavily to move stock. Retailers are sacrificing margins, and that cannot continue in the long term. The high street remains a challenging place to do business, and we urge the Chancellor to retain the retail discount at 75% to give hard-pressed retailers more confidence to invest in growing their part of the economy.”
