UK retailers face meagre 0.2% LFL sales growth in Sept 2023: BDO

Despite in-store LFL sales growing by 1.0 per cent compared to September 2022, online sales grew just 0.1 per cent, demonstrating a weak performance overall. This is the 14th month in a row that sales growth has been lower than the rate of inflation, meaning that sales volumes have continued to decline each month, painting a gloomy outlook for retailers, according to BDO’s latest High Street Sales Tracker.

The fashion sector saw sales fall by -3.4 per cent, compared to 6.7 per cent growth in September 2022. This poor performance was largely driven by in-store sales declining by -5.0 per cent.

The lifestyle sector emerged as the only winner from September’s results, with sales up 4.8 per cent from a base of 1.2 per cent in September 2022. In-store sales were particularly strong, growing by 7.4 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO LLP, said: “Despite people returning from summer holidays and school terms commencing, September was a very poor month for the retail sector. Sales growth has flat-lined in categories like fashion and homewares, and such minimal growth in a high-inflation environment means that sales volumes of discretionary goods have shrunk.

“The context of these results, comparing back to September 2022, is really important, we saw very weak sales growth in that period amid the economic uncertainty prompted by the government’s ‘mini budget’. Performing so poorly against such a weak base will be really worrying for retailers.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)