TOP April 2024 City Centre Retail Spend Insights.
SALES IN HIGH STREETS NOSE DIVED IN APRIL, DUE TO EASTER OCCURING IN MARCH THIS YEAR COMBINED WITH HEAVY RAIN THROUGHOUT THE MONTH
According to Diane Wehrle, of Rendle Intelligence and Insights & Beauclair’s Brand Ambassador.
With Easter falling in March this year versus April last year, it was inevitable that sales across UK towns and cities would take a nosedive against April 2023, as last year the month had kicked off with the Easter weekend.
In the absence of a bank holiday boost in April this year, and with frequent heavy rain occurring throughout the month, overall sales in high streets declined annually by -11%. This contrasts with a rise in sales of +4.6% from April 2022 to April 2023, when Easter fell during that month in both years. Sales also declined over the month from March 2024, by -6.4%, versus a month on month rise of +12.8% from February to March 2024, further reflecting the Easter boost.
Whilst overall sales declined sharply in April, the impact on the high street varied from sector to sector. Five sectors account for circa 80% of all store sales, and of these the hardest hit were Fashion and Food & Drink, with sales in both declining by -12.6% from April 2023. However, the other three sectors were more resilient, with single digit annual drops in sales; -6% in Grocery, -5.2% in General Retail and just -2.9% in Health & Beauty.
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The modest drop in Health & Beauty sales demonstrated the continuing growth in self-care, particularly as the average transaction value of this sector in April rose by +2.1%, indicating that many consumers spent a greater amount on this product category than in April 2023.
The decline in sales was driven by drops in all three of the key metrics – the number of transactions, the number of customers purchasing and the average transaction value (ATV). However, the drop in transactions and customers of -7.9% and -7% respectively were more than double the -3.3% reduction in the ATV indicating that the value of many transactions, made by those who did spend, did not drop away.
Many consumers clearly remain cautious, and so the challenge for high streets will be achieving a bounce back in sales in May given that in May 2023, even with the likely uplift delivered by the Coronation, sales rose annually by just +1.5%.