Buoyant sales and growing confidence
June 8, 2021
May saw the strongest growth in retail sales since the start of the pandemic struck the UK last year, with flooring a strong performer as consumer confidence grows and the property market booms.
Total sales increased 10 per cent in May compared with the same month in 2019, according to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
“Retail sales were buoyant in May thanks to the reopening of hospitality, coupled with the afterglow of non-essential retail’s own return," says Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium. "Pent-up demand for the instore shopping experience, as well as the first signs of summer weather, helped retail to the strongest sales growth of the pandemic. Furniture and homeware sales continued to perform well as consumers were able to see and feel items instore," she said.
The improvement in consumer sentiment is borne out by retail analysts, IGD. CEO Susan Barratt says: "The IGD Shopper Confidence Index remains strong, with further lockdown restrictions easing and two bank holiday weekends contributing to a positive outlook for shoppers. Financial confidence is helping to maintain these stronger levels, with fewer than one in five shoppers (19%) expecting to be worse off in the year ahead, which is a record low.”
Besides pent-up demand, flooring retailers are benefiting from the lack of alternative spending options for consumers, such as travel, and a booming property market, aided by stamp duty incentives.
Government figures show there have been 566,170 residential property transactions in the U.K. in the first four months of 2021. That is a 70 percent rise on the equivalent period in 2020, which was affected by the pandemic, but also 44 percent more than in the first four months of 2019.
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