Early Black Friday fizzles out with lacklustre November retail sales

investmentweek.co.uk:

Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said the 'limping' sales growth so close to Christmas was evidence the cost of living crisis was taking its toll on spending.

Total UK retail sales grew by 2.7% in November, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG. However, this was against a growth of 4.2% in November 2022. 

The latest figures are above the three month average growth of 2.6% but below the 12-month average growth of 4.1%, despite a large push from retailers around Black Friday.

Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said the «limping» sales growth close to Christmas was evidence that the cost of living crisis was taking its toll on spending.

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«With two of the three months of the crucial golden quarter seeing sales growth below 3%, it has already been a weak Christmas trading period,» he said.

«Price remains the main purchasing driver, so we are likely to see a prolonged and well targeted period of discounting as retailers compete hard for a shrinking pool of spend and will need to clear stock,» Martin added, potentially having an even greater impact on already tight margins for retailers.

The challenging outlook could lead to further casualties in the retail sector, particularly pure online players facing more than 28 months of consecutive sales decline.

Online non-food sales fell again in November, decreasing by 2.1%, against a more modest decline of 0.4% for the same time a year ago, though this is a slight improvement on its three month decline of 2.8%.

The proportion of non-food items bought online decreased to 41.4% in November from 41.6% a year ago. 

In contrast, food and drink, health, personal care and beauty categories