High street sees fourth poor December in a row

December’s like-for-like sales growth was -0.1 per cent, according to BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker (HSST).

The negative figure means the UK has now seen four consecutive Decembers with no high street sales growth.

Year on year sales of fashion goods declined -1.07 per cent in December, but the overall figure was pushed toward parity by like-for-like increases in the lifestyle (+2.4 per cent) and homewares (+2.6 per cent) sectors.

While December’s decline of -0.1 per cent may appear marginal, it is coming off of a negative base of -5.3% for the same month last year, which was the worst month since December 2008. A further decline from such a weak base will come as a serious disappointment for retailers.

However, many stores did manage to capitalise on what was expected to be a very strong week leading up to Christmas Day, which this year fell on a Sunday. In that week overall sales were up by 11.7% year on year – the largest weekly growth for the whole of 2016 and the best weekly total like-for-like growth recorded since February 2014.

Online sales also rocketed in the week before Christmas, increasing 51.1 per cent for the week – a figure not beaten since the first week of 2015. The result helped to lift online sales growth for December to +19.0 per cent, a notable improvement on the +7.5 per cent seen in December last year.

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO LLP, said: “With such a weak base for December 2015, any further decline can only be seen as a poor result for retailers.

“Coming at a critical juncture, this fourth negative December in succession highlights the magnitude of the challenge that lies ahead for 2017, when consumers will more keenly feel the bite of inflation and a falling pound.”