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Strongest retail recovery from furnishing sales
Website Editor • August 11, 2020
Furnishing and floorcovering is showing the "strongest performance" in a mixed picture of retail recovery on the High Street which saw sales grow for the second month running since lockdown.
The latest figures in the Retail Sales Monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show sales increasing by 3.2 per cent last month, compared to an increase of 0.5 per cent in July last year. However, July’s growth is a slight slowdown on the 3.4 sales increase recorded in June,
“July saw the second month of growth as lockdown measures eased and demand gradually began to return in some places. Many shops continued to struggle as footfall was down. The strongest performance came from food, furniture and homeware, as consumers increasingly invest in their time at home," said elen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the BRC.
Paul Martin, UK Head of Retail at KPMG added: “September will be the real test for retailers this quarter, traditionally being a month of high volumes driven by the return to school after the holiday season.
"That said, with the furlough scheme unwinding and wider economic uncertainty set for the autumn, consumer anxiety will likely rise along with it. This will place more scrutiny on disposable income and make life even tougher for retailers.”
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