Retail sales up in September but jewellery growth slows

UK retail sales in September were up compared with last year but growth in sales of jewellery and watches slowed.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG retail sales monitor found retail sales increased 2.6% on a like-for-like basis from September 2014, when they had decreased 2.1% on the preceding year.

On a total basis, sales were up 3.9% against a 0.8% fall during the same month last year. This is the fastest growth since January 2014, excluding Easter distortions. Total growth stood at 5.8%.

On a three-month basis, total non-food sales were up 3.7%, ahead of their 12-month average of 3.3%. The monitor said that the inclusion of the August bank holiday, which usually falls into the August report, positively distorted the figures.

Despite this growth, the monitor found that the jewellery and watches category lost out to spending on other categories during the month. The category reported a deceleration in its growth rate, falling from second place in August to 11th in September – the category’s worst performance since the monitor began recording it in November 2014.

Meanwhile, online sales of non-food products grew 14.2% in September compared with last year when they had grown 8.2%. The non-food online penetration rate was 17.7%, up from 17.2% in September 2014.

David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: “With the summer bank holiday falling into September, top line trends for the month were inevitably inflated with total sales up 3.9% compared to 2014.

“However, taking the three months [from] July to September, total sales across all categories also showed a bounce back, up 2.2% in the period suggesting a stronger finish to the British summer overall.”