Easter in March boosts Scottish Retail sales

This year’s early Easter helped boost retail March sales in Scotland in real terms when adjusted for deflation.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC)-KPMG Scottish Retail Sales Monitor found total Scottish sales fell in March by 0.1 per cent, compared with a year ago.

But the adjusted for deflation increase of 1.9 per cent, as measured by the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index, was the best growth since April 2014.

The data showed total food sales up 0.5 per cent over the year, which was the category’s best performance for 11 months, while non-food sales were 0.7 per cent lower.

Retail experts said sales were boosted by Easter, which was included in March’s figures this year as opposed to April last year.

The SRC said many people used the bank holiday break to spruce up their homes and gardens, benefiting furniture sales.

Health and beauty ranges were also popular in March as gifts for Mother’s Day.

David Martin, SRC head of policy, said: “Following a strong increase in footfall, retail sales returned the best performance for almost a year in March and provided a welcome boost to what has been an otherwise sluggish first quarter in 2015.

“Whilst consumer confidence continues to rebound and the underlying economic conditions improve, much of the bounce was thanks to Easter falling two weeks earlier than last year.

“This allowed retailers to capitalise on the key trading days of Good Friday and Easter Saturday.

“Retailers have now enjoyed the Easter bounce so, looking ahead, April’s figures may prove more challenging.”

David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: “The early Easter has flattered Scottish sales figures and masked some disappointments. However, there are also positive signs emerging in the detail.

“Food retailers continued their fightback from the problems of last year and were the best performing sector this month. Adjusting for deflation, Food sales increased by 1.4 per cent in real terms - the best return since Andy Murray won Wimbledon. The timing of Easter will have boosted this significantly but grocers will be relieved to have today’s good news.

“Unsettled and wet weather has dampened the sales of spring fashions whilst demand for outdoor goods, normally a beneficiary of the Easter weekend, was slowed by the cooler weather.

“As a result, total non-food sales, adjusted to include online sales, only increased by 0.7 per cent, which is disappointing when compared to a month which does not include Easter. ‎The gap in Non-Food growth over the last three months between Scotland and the rest of the UK widened by 1 percentage point to 2.6 per cent.

“High-street traffic may well be up in April but it could be people turning out to see politicians on their hustings rather than eager shoppers hunting bargains. It is only when we have April’s numbers that we will see ‎the effect of Easter balancing out and the real comparison for Spring 2015.”