Furniture continued to outstrip other retail categories in terms of growth in July, according to the latest Retail Sales Monitor from BRC-KPMG. According to the report, renewed activity in the housing market, with mortgage approvals and sales expectations both up, suggests further strength in the coming months. GfK’s Consumer Confidence measure for major purchases remains at historically high levels.
House Textiles also had a strong month, and was the second fastest-growing category. Shoppers responded well to promotions, with sales growth complementing the Furniture and Home Accessories categories.
Home Accessories showed the strongest performance in 18 months, excluding Easter distortions, but ranked fourth, reflecting strong growth in the all of the Home categories. Similar to Furniture, performance continues to be supported by strong housing market conditions.
Overall, UK retail sales increased 1.2% on a like-for-like basis from July 2014, when they had decreased 0.3% on the preceding year. On a total basis, sales were up 2.2%, against a 1.3% rise in July 2014. Adjusted for the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index deflation, total growth was 3.6%.
Helen Dickinson, irector General, British Retail Consortium, said: “Despite being a slight slowdown compared with last month, today’s sales growth of 2.2% compared with this time last year reflects the continued hard work by retailers to tap into increasing consumer demand. Interestingly, of all categories covered by our monitor, total food sales were the worst performing, recording a fall for the first time this year.
“However, as the labour market continues to improve and real wages show strong growth, it’s no surprise our extra disposable income seems to be being spent on more discretionary purchases. Three of the four best-performing categories in the monitor were furniture, house textiles and home accessories, benefitting from renewed strength in the housing market.
“Retailers have been offering great prices and special offers on everyday essentials for some time. Despite 27 consecutive months of falling shop prices it seems that consumers remain content to budget carefully on their necessary food outlay and spend that little bit more on purchases they have perhaps deferred.”
