Online sales strong but fail to lift retail gloom

Online sales provided a bright spot for beleaguered retailers in February as overall like-for-like sales dropped 1.5 per cent on the same month last year, a new survey has found.

Despite the overall sale slump last month, online year-on-year sales were up 27.9 per cent according to figures from the BDO High Street Sales Tracker. The firm said the boost was due to the cold snap in England in the first half of the month which drove consumers to shop from the comfort of home.

With like-for-like sales up 2 per cent, non-fashion was the only other category to see growth, bolstered by a strong performance by luxury retailers ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Conversely, fashion was down 2.5 per cent year-on-year and experienced its worst month since October 2011 as the Arctic weather dampened early sales of spring collections, BDO said.

Don Williams, national head of retail and wholesale at BDO, said: “During strong trading periods like Christmas and slow ones like February, trends are magnified and trading performance becomes polarised between those who hold their own and those who find the going tough.

“Online is the engine room of growth for the sector and is still a way off reaching maturity, so those retailers with a strong multi-channel offer that they continue to invest in are stealing a march on their competitors.

“Despite some positive economic indicators suggesting that retailers can approach the future with cautious optimism … there is still unlikely to be universal celebration in retailers’ boardrooms just yet.”

The BDO High Street Sales Tracker analyses like-for-like spending at non-grocery retailers with annual sales of between £5 million and £500m.