Rain fails to dampen London shoppers
A new report shows that recent downpours have failed to discourage London shoppers, despite having a big impact on the UK in general.
Retail sales in the capital increased by four per cent in August, compared with the same month last year, according to new figures released by the London Retail Consortium (LRC).
This is in stark contrast to recent figures released by the BRC - the LRC’s UK-wide equivalent, indicating that year-on-year sales increased by a mere 0.6 per cent.
This represents a recovery from London’s retailing slump in May, which saw spending decrease by 0.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
The LRC believes unseasonably bad weather over the month encouraged consumers to hit the shops as an alternative to seaside day trips. Higher tourism levels in the city were also a major contributor, it said.
Although the growth rate was slightly lower than in July, down from 2.5 per cent to 2.3 per cent, the overall picture for London’s retail sector looks encouraging – especially considering recent interest rate hikes by the Bank of England.
“Central London has outperformed the rest of the UK by the highest margin to date this year,” said Helen Dickenson, acting head of retail at KPMG, which help compile the study.
“The higher the visitor numbers and deep discounts of some of the larger stores across the sale period has driven this growth – we certainly can’t contribute it to the weather. The outlook for the rest of the year look challenging.”
Rising numbers of tourists from Europe, Asia and the Middle East compensated for the decreasing number of those from the US, with sales of designer clothing particularly popular among Middle Eastern visitors.
The health and beauty sector also continued to do well while some sporting goods retailers enjoyed a boost from the Olympics.