Best London sales in five months

Retail sales in central London in January were 6.5% higher than a year ago, on a like-for-like basis, stronger than the 1.1% increase in the UK as whole. Retail footfall in January was only slightly weaker than in December and still well up on a year ago, in contrast to the year-on-year decline in the UK as a whole. Clearance sales and discounts attracted both UK shoppers and overseas visitors. The latter also benefited from the weakness of the pound.

People took advantage of clearance bargains, especially for larger homewares and discretionary items of clothing and footwear. But after the sales, underlying trade remained challenging.

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said: “After four months of annual declines, there was a strong bounce back in London’s January retail sales. Customers took advantage of the many clearance sales on offer, resulting in the highest like-for-like increase since August. There was also a boost from overseas shoppers taking advantage of sterling’s weakness and the wide range of clearances. “The heavy snowfall will have affected trading in the first week of February. London retailers will be hoping for more predictable weather for the rest of the year and that the sales increase in January can be maintained.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, said: “Following four months’ year-on-year declines in the value of like-for-like sales, this appears to be significantly better but the figures don’t mean consumer confidence has returned. The performance in the capital for January, consistent with the rest of the UK, was heavily skewed by a reasonably strong performance in the first week of the month, caused by the continuation of a short-lived pick-up in spending immediately after Christmas by the level of foreign visitors continuing to take advantage of favourable exchange rates and by extensive discounting and ongoing clearance sales.”

Image: A winter shopper

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