High street fails to find Christmas cheer

Christmas failed to light up the high street, with figures today pointing to an “underwhelming” December for many retailers.

Christmas was 'underwhelming' for many high street retailers. Picture: Neil Hanna

Releasing its latest sales tracker, accountancy firm BDO said overall like-for-like sales among UK “mid-market” retailers were down 2.2 per cent year-on-year.

Last minute present hunting saw non-fashion sales pick up in the final week of December, offsetting a weak start to the month, the report noted.

Fashion sales were down 4.6 per cent overall with poor weather and savvy bargain hunters hitting the sector particularly hard.

Although pre-Christmas discounting saw sales pick up slightly at the end of the month this was described as “too little too late”.

Non-store sales, including online trading, were the “real stars of Christmas”, added BDO, with takings up 31.1 per cent on 2012.