Fashion weak in January as Scottish retail sales fall

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 15, 2017

Scottish retail sales were weak in January as consumers tightened their belts after Christmas with clothing and footwear at the bottom of their shopping lists.

The Scottish Retail Consortium-KPMG Scottish Retail Sales Monitor showed overall sales down 3.2% on a like-for-like basis compared to January 2016, when they had also fallen, although by a worse 4%. And total sales fell 3.5%. When adjusted for inflation, January sales fell by 1.8%.

Total non-food sales fell by 4.3% with clothing and footwear being the two worst performing categories. But demand for health and beauty products proved more resilient last month.

Scottish Retail Consortium director David Lonsdale said: "After the extravagances of the festive period, which saw solid sales growth in December and indeed during the final few months of last year, shoppers were clearly keeping a firmer grip on purses and wallets in January and focusing more on essential spending as lower footfall data for the period suggested.”