october retail sales woes
Views are mixed about how retail sales performed in the UK during October, but consensus is that it still isn’t looking pretty. As a very small business I thought that retail sales trends would have little effect on us. Was I wrong! I now keep an ear to the floor and my eyes on the official stats to give me an idea of where our sales will go.One of our shops is located bang on the high street. Our core customers are the retail staff, and when retailers are slow they don’t need as many staff! A poor sales trend set in last December, which turned out to be a pretty dismal Christmas across the board. In the 10 month since sales have been down. In a survey by Bloomberg, 42% of retailers have seen a fall on sales on October 2004 (). This certainly reflects what we have experienced with our high street store.
However, analysts Footfall have been recording increasing numbers of shoppers. Last week they recorded a large rise in the numbers of shoppers – although still not beating 2004 figures. Strangely we have experienced exactly the same patter. Last week our high street shop saw the strongest sales since March – still not quite at the level of 2004 but getting close.
Moral of this story? National statistics and trends are generalised but can be a valuable tool to help a small businesses to plan ahead.
Let’s all hope for a busy Christmas! That reminds me, must get Christmas menus to the printers...
posted by Paul Fisher @ 11:08 am
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