Soaking July washes away Excessive Road hope for store gross sales

The sixth wettest July on file dampened store gross sales, knowledge has revealed.

Takings grew simply 1.5% final month, in accordance with commerce physique the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.

That was down from a 2.3% improve a yr in the past and beneath the three.5% common over the previous three months.

Downpours deterred consumers from venturing out and dented demand for summer season garments.

Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, stated: “As the storm clouds came out, shoppers retreated.”

The gross sales quantity was additionally weak as a result of inflation – pushed by value rises as retailers claw again increased prices – has begun to ease.

Meanwhile, on-line non-food gross sales fell once more – down 6.9% year-on-year – because the put up Covid development again to shops continued.

Helen Dickinson, chief government of the British Retail Consortium, stated: “While consumer confidence is generally improving, it remains below longer term levels.”

The moist climate additionally prompted spending on “insperiences” – indoor experiences – in accordance with separate knowledge from Barclays. Spending on takeaways rose 9.2% and on digital content material and subscriptions by 9.9%. Overall card spending rose 4% final month, stated the financial institution.

It additionally credited Taylor Swift with serving to to gasoline a close to 16% surge in outlay on leisure final month. It got here after tour tickets for the Bad Blood star, together with The Foo Fighters, went on sale.

Esme Harwood, director at Barclays, stated: “While July’s weather was a wash-out for clothing retailers, it was a ray of sunshine for takeaways and streaming services, which performed better than expected.”

Abbas Khan, an economist at Barclays, stated the approaching months had been more likely to see pressures on retailers from power and another prices ease. He added: “However, offsetting this, more households are set to experience higher mortgage costs as they refix onto higher rates,” he stated.

“Accordingly, while we do not expect a consumer recession in the coming quarters, growth is likely to be meagre.”