High street suffers Black Friday hangover as retail sales drop
RETAILERS were hit by a slowdown in sales over Christmas after the Black Friday shopping bonanza pulled forward holiday spending into November.
Like-for-like sales dropped by 0.4 per cent compared to the same month a year ago, according to the latest data from KPMG and the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Total sales were up one per cent, which was the slowest December growth since 2008.
“It’s now clear that Black Friday did pull festive sales forward into November, and this created a challenging lull in spending with consumers waiting for future bargains,” KPMG’s head of retail, David McCorquodale, said.
Sales nevertheless picked up again on Boxing Day as end of season sales drew customers back on to retailer’s websites and into their stores.
Non-food sales rose 2.1 per cent, in the three months to December. Food fell by 2.2 per cent, but posted its best monthly performance since Easter.