Cold weather boosts UK footwear sales in October
08/11/2012
The first half of the month fared well but the second half was up against strong comparables due to the timing of half-term – last year it fell in October but was in November this year. This resulted in a better performance for adults than for children’s ranges, but the latter showed growth nonetheless.
David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: “Clothing and footwear sales soared into double-digit like-for-like growth in the first week but then faded in the latter half of the month, showing that consumers may have bought into autumn/winter collections but are still too nervous to fill their wardrobes with them.”
While footwear continues to perform well and has been the best performing category of seven monitored since the start of the year, retail sales overall for October show the lowest growth in sales for a year, excluding Easter.
“The recession may officially be over but it will take a little longer for consumers to feel they can spend freely again,” added Mr McCorquodale. “Retailers are holding less stock than a year ago and may choose to be cautious with pre-Christmas sales in order to protect margins. However, the disappointing sales figures for October indicate that winning share of the Christmas wallet will be just as competitive over the next two months as it was last year.”
The categories monitored were footwear, food, clothing, furniture and flooring, house textiles, health and beauty, home accessories and other non-food.
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