Retail sales held up better than expected in February as Total UK figures were up 5.2 per cent against an increase of 6.7 per cent for the same month last year.
In addition, UK Like-for-Like retail sales bumped up 4.9 per cent in February, against an increase of 2.7 per cent in 2022.
This is according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG’s latest Retail Sales Monitor (RSM), which also reported that non-food sales were up 3.2 per cent over the three-months to February.
Of this, in the same period, instore non-food sales increased 8.1 per cent on a total basis, while online non-food sales decreased by 3.1 per cent in February, against a decline of 28.4 per cent in 2022!
And more specifically, sales of household appliances were up last month quite considerably against February 2022, the RSM showed. Online, this was also the best performing category – also up from last year.
BRC Chief Executive, Helen Dickinson, said: “Retail sales held up better than expected this February, though volumes remained down on last year. While the cost-of-living crisis has made customers increasingly price sensitive, energy-saving appliances continued to sell well.”
Paul Martin, UK Head of Retail at KPMG, added: “With increases in energy, broadband, mobile phone and council tax bills on the horizon, consumers will continue to take steps to reduce spend where they can – switching where they shop, what they buy, whilst also cutting back on activities.
“As much of the growth in retail is being driven by inflation, price and promotional strategies have become increasingly important growth engines for retailers. Online retailers will also have to review their business models, and there are likely to be some failures in this space, particularly among the businesses that are currently over-valued following the surge in demand during the pandemic which has now decelerated.”
