BDO High Street Sales Tracker September 2019
04 October 2019
The latest BDO High Street Sales Tracker shows that overall like-for-like (LFL) sales declined 0.7% year-on-year in September, from a broadly flat 0.3% rise a year earlier, as physical stores suffered the deepest decline in eight years.
While total non-store LFL sales rose 12.4% in the five weeks to 29 September, store LFLs plummeted 3.1% in the month, against a weak 2.7% decline last year, with BDO pointing to Brexit uncertainty holding back discretionary spending.
Overall footfall fell in four out of the five weeks in the month. High streets recorded footfall dived 8.0% in the final week of September, although rose 2.2% a week earlier. Meanwhile, shopping centres experienced declines throughout the month, while retail parks saw footfall rise in all but the final week.
Total LFL sales were weakest in the first and final weeks of September, with LFLs down 4.10% at the start of the month, and down 1.37% and 1.82% in the penultimate and final weeks. Sales picked up in the middle of the month, with total LFLs up by 2.12% and 1.39% in weeks two and three, albeit against weak comparatives.
BDO High Street Tracker – year-on-year growth
Source: BDO, Retail Economics analysis
Homewares continued its strong performance for an eleventh month, helped by weak comparatives. Overall Homeware LFLs increased by 5.3% in September, against a 5.2% fall last year. In-store LFLs were broadly flat at 0.2% in the month, from a dismal 4.4% decline in the previous year.
Fashion recorded its first decline since mid-2018. Total fashion LFL sales slipped back 0.6% in September, against a 0.7% uptick last year. In-store Fashion LFL sales decreased 2.0% in the month from a weak -2.8% base a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Lifestyle’s five month run of positive results came to an end in September, when total LFLs fell by 2.1%, compared to a 1.3% rise last year. In-store LFLs plunged 5.4% in the month against a poor 2.1% drop in the previous year, marking the weakest in-store result for Lifestyle in over a decade.
