Retail sales ‘suffer worst fall’

Most sales categories saw a decline in March

The struggling UK High Street suffered another blow when the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recorded its worst fall in sales since records began.

The BRC said total sales in March were down 1.9% on a year ago, although the early timing of Easter last year had an effect on the figures.

But the BRC said shoppers did not want to spend “unless they really had to”.

Footwear was the only growth sector, as food and drink, clothing, homeware, electrical, and others all fell.

Meanwhile, like-for-like sales were down 3.5%, in their worst showing in nearly six years.

Internet sales, which have been defying the general downward trend, showed their slowest growth since records began in 2008.

Recording of High Street sales figures began two years earlier.

Internet sales were 7.5% higher than a year ago, much weaker than the 10.4% in February.

Clothes and book sales suffered their largest declines since 2009 and 2005 respectively.

“We have seen an emergence of new, lower spending patterns since the middle of January, which are currently continuing to trend downwards,” said Helen Dickinson, head of retail at survey partner KPMG.

“Many retailers will not be able to sustain this ongoing weakness in demand beyond the short-term and are hoping for some good news around the extended bank holiday period and a feel-good factor driven by the royal wedding.”

There has been a string of gloomy outlooks recently from the likes of Next, Mothercare, HMV, Currys and PC World parent Dixons Retail.

The BRC pointed out that “uncomfortably high inflation and low wage growth have produced the first year-on-year fall in disposable incomes for 30 years”.

“Falling disposable incomes and the fear of worse to come means people don’t want to spend,” added BRC director general Stephen Robertson.

“There’s only so much discounts and promotions can do to overcome that.”

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