Retailers Look To Royal Wedding And Spate Of Bank Holidays To End High Street Woes

The BDO High Street Sales Tracker shows year-on-year high street sales dropped by 3.8% last month.

The worst performed sectors were lifestyle, fashion and homeware in April, dropping 3.7%, 3.3% and 8.8% respectively with the latter seeing its worst performance in a decade.

Despite for the seventh consecutive month sales failed to grow by more than 1%, not all sectors performed poorly.

Compared to last year online fashion sales grew by 25.4% thanks to the month’s mini-heatwave, growing well above the average online of 16.4%.

Following more uninspiring results, retailers will be looking ahead to May’s bank holidays and the royal wedding to boost sales and consumer confidence.

“After another set of poor results, it’s perhaps time for retailers to seek out emerging positive trends on which to reignite consumer spending,” BDO head of retail Sophie Michael said.

Some real earnings around the corner coupled with a royal wedding and two bank holidays. The right weather with the combination of these factors could be just the boost retailers have been hoping for.

Retailers have to find ways to find shoppers feel-good factor into sales of full price lines.

“Chances to protect margins are few and far between, so its vital stores steer shoppers away from the discount rail by providing an appealing product range and a distinctive shopping experience.”