Sales of homewares increase for the first time in a year

Sales of homewares improved for the first time in 12 months in July while fashion suffered due to poor weather.


After a year of like-for-like declines sales for homeware retailers, sales rose 1.2% according to BDO Stoy Hayward?s High Street Sales Tracker.

Furniture and textiles performed particularly well, partly due to deep discounting across the sector.

Fashion sales fell 4.2% for the month, with soft sales across most areas as the rain and cooler temperatures deterred shoppers from buying summer stock.

Non-fashion like-for-like sales grew 1.2% with leisure goods and gifting reporting the strongest sales.

BDO retail partner Don Williams said: ?The strong rebound in homewares has certainly provided some long overdue good news for retailers in those sectors. However fashion had a particularly difficult month due to lack of ?barbeque weather.? This supports our view that the recovery in consumer spending is patchy and by no means uniform.?
by Lisa Berwin www.retail-week.com