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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 b

According to insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor research, the number of firms experiencing “significant” financial distress at the end of March rose by 21% year-on-year, representing 10,000 more businesses.
General retailers were the hardest hit of these with those reporting distress rising 25% to 30,668 as discretionary spending hit its lowest level since 2012.
Food and drug retailers are less dependent on consumer spending in general and weather conditions for sales, also saw numbers reporting distress up 11% to 12,290 over the last 12 months.
“Almost weekly we hear news of another major retailer that is struggling – from the recent administrations of Maplin and Toy ’R’ Us, to Carpetright’s closure of a quarter of its stores and the recent CVAs of New Look and Select – indicating that even the most established brands are failing to entice customers through their doors,” Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer said.
With competition on the high stree

Still the feature is in its beta stage, retailers like Nike have already signed on as early partners.
The footwear brand launched a new pair of limited edition shoes to coincide with its new Messenger AR advert through which customers are allowed to view a virtual render of the shoe when chatting with Nike’s chartboat and make a purchase.
“When a person interacts with your business in Messenger, you can prompt them to open the camera, which will be pre-populated with filters and AR effects that are specific to your brand,” Facebook said.
“This feature leverages the nature of messaging to help people get valuable, instant feedback about purchases, customizations, and more, without ever needing to set foot in a store.”
1.3 billion People have understood the usage of the Messenger app and the social media behemoth has said that as part of the long-term revenue growth strategy ads within the app will be important.
Facebook said it also plan

According to the RICS UK Commercial Property Market survey, 43% of respondents saw a drop in demand throughout the first quarter. It is the lowest level of demand marked since the height of the financial crisis in 2009.
Furthermore the number of respondents noting an increase in availability in the retail sector which has rose by 43% in the same period.
On a yearly basis, expectations of respondents over prime retail rents to rise jumped 24%, rising even further for secondary retail rents across all parts of the UK.
“It has been hard to escape the grim news from the high street in recent months with a whole host of well-known names either closing down or looking to scale back their footprint,” RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said.
The latest survey results of chartered surveyors suggest that this challenging environment is unlikely to let up anytime soon. Indeed, the feedback regarding secondary retail locations points to further falls in ren

As temperatures leaped into the high 20’s, with Thursday making the hottest April day for nearly 70 years. According to report from Waitrose a 400% rise in sun cream sales, a 270% jump in barbeque food and a 54% rise in rose wine.
It is also expected a 300% rise in ice-cube and a 150% boost in beer sales.
“Our forecasting team closely monitors the weather as a rise in temperature of even just a few degrees will see huge shifts in buying patterns,” a Waitrose spokesperson said.
In mean time Sainsbury’s was anticipating a 150% boost in ice-cream sales and a huge jump of 365% sales in the amount of barbeque coal purchased.
On the other side its biggest rival Tesco expected to sell 3 million ice-lollies, 2 million boxes of strawberries and 8 million sausages.
Argos also saw a 150% jump in sales of garden seating while selling twice as many barbeques as usual.
A sharp increase in sales also enjoyed by Fashion retailers as high street

A further 77% said they had believed in a good quality product if it was made in Britain, rising from 60% in 2013.
“There’s a growing desire to buy more British, but a big challenge is where to find products that are made in Britain,” Make it British found Kate Hills said.
When it comes down to building trust in shoppers, knowing that a retailer is selling goods that are made in UK. This could be still one of the main things that can give shoppers confidence in buying them.