Jewellery and watches help drive UK retail sales in July

Retail sales in the UK were up 1.2% on a like-for-like basis from July 2014, when they had decreased 0.3% on the preceding year. 

This is according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG Retail Sales Monitor which found that on a total basis sales were up 2.2%, against a 1.3% rise in July 2014. Growth was driven by non-food sales, which grew 3.7% over the same period.

The report showed that jewellery and watches showed “robust” growth in July, rising at its fastest rate since the category was added to the monitor in November 2014. Overall it was the fifth fastest growing category, ahead of clothing, health and beauty and household appliances.

Helen Dickinson, director general at the BRC, said: “Despite being a slight slowdown compared with last month, today’s sales growth of 2.2% compared with this time last year reflects the continued hard work by retailers to tap into increasing consumer demand.

“However, as the labour market continues to improve and real wages show strong growth it’s no surprise our extra disposable income seems to be being spent on more discretionary purchases.”

Meanwhile, online sales of non-food products in the UK grew 14.7% in July versus a year earlier, when they had grown 14.9%. The non-food online penetration rate was 17.6%, up from 16.5% in July 2014.

Jewellery and watch sales achieved their highest online growth since February. The report said that this is indicative of consumers’ willingness to spend on discretionary luxuries, citing deflationary shop prices and rising real incomes as favorable trends for consumer spending.