Nitheesh NH
UK retail sales grew 3.7% in January, improving sequentially. However, this improvement was driven by small retailers (defined as having fewer than 100 employees or with revenues of £60 million or less per year). Online, mail order retailers/Internet pure plays outperformed, to capture more share.
[caption id="attachment_103977" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Data in this report is not seasonally adjusted
Source: ONS/Coresight Research[/caption] Retail Sales Growth by Sector Sequentially, we saw improvement in several core sectors in January, including grocery stores, large clothing chains and department stores/mixed-goods retailers. In these three sectors and overall, small retailers supported the strengthening of sales growth. On the other hand, large retailers reported 2.6% growth in total, down slightly from December. We continued to see volatile reported numbers for a number of sectors, and these are hard to account for other than suggesting that there are methodological issues with the ONS survey. These sectors included specialist food stores, beverage and tobacco specialists (which includes off-licenses), and nonstore retail other than mail order retailers/pure plays. The ONS recorded shop-price inflation of 0.7% in January, up from 0.2% in December. In January, food-store inflation stood at 1.5%, versus 1.4% in December, and nonfood retailer inflation stood at 0.2%, versus (0.5)% in December. [caption id="attachment_103978" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
*A small retailer is defined as one with fewer than 100 employees or with revenues of £60 million or less per year; all others are large retailers
**A relatively fragmented sector, in which reported figures have traditionally been volatile
Source: ONS[/caption] Online Retail Sales Growth Total Internet retail sales were up 7.4% year over year in January, versus 11.8% in December. However, for food retailers, Internet sales were up 1.9% in January, after declining in November and December. Internet sales were down 1.2% at store-based nonfood retailers, driven by a near-14% slump in online sales at department stores/mixed-goods retailers. Online sales were up 15.2% at nonstore retailers.
Data in this report is not seasonally adjustedSource: ONS/Coresight Research[/caption] Retail Sales Growth by Sector Sequentially, we saw improvement in several core sectors in January, including grocery stores, large clothing chains and department stores/mixed-goods retailers. In these three sectors and overall, small retailers supported the strengthening of sales growth. On the other hand, large retailers reported 2.6% growth in total, down slightly from December. We continued to see volatile reported numbers for a number of sectors, and these are hard to account for other than suggesting that there are methodological issues with the ONS survey. These sectors included specialist food stores, beverage and tobacco specialists (which includes off-licenses), and nonstore retail other than mail order retailers/pure plays. The ONS recorded shop-price inflation of 0.7% in January, up from 0.2% in December. In January, food-store inflation stood at 1.5%, versus 1.4% in December, and nonfood retailer inflation stood at 0.2%, versus (0.5)% in December. [caption id="attachment_103978" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
*A small retailer is defined as one with fewer than 100 employees or with revenues of £60 million or less per year; all others are large retailers**A relatively fragmented sector, in which reported figures have traditionally been volatile
Source: ONS[/caption] Online Retail Sales Growth Total Internet retail sales were up 7.4% year over year in January, versus 11.8% in December. However, for food retailers, Internet sales were up 1.9% in January, after declining in November and December. Internet sales were down 1.2% at store-based nonfood retailers, driven by a near-14% slump in online sales at department stores/mixed-goods retailers. Online sales were up 15.2% at nonstore retailers.