
The latest monthly BDO High Street Sales Tracker (HSST), retailers had experienced ‘a grim start to the Golden Quarter’ in October.
In-store sales dropped 1 per cent (the first negative in-store sales numbers since February 2021), internet sales dropped 1.8 per cent for the third time in 2023, and like-for-like retail sales decreased 1.7 per cent year over year. Even worse, it stated that “in-store sales of fashion suffered particularly badly, falling 2.3 per cent.”
When compared to a year ago, when overall sales increased by 3.5 per cent and in-store sales increased by 5.9 per cent (although compared to 2021 when pandemic troubles were still having a large impact), one can understand the degree of the dismal start to the quarter.
In October 2022, fashion’s performance had increased by 6.7 per cent from the previous year. However, October was always going to be terrible because of the unusual heatwave that lasted for three weeks during the month, which coincided with the arrival of autumn merchandise like coats and sweaters in stores.