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Published
May 30, 2017
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Late Easter and department stores drive Irish retail sales growth in April

Published
May 30, 2017

Irish retail sales excluding motor trades increased 0.4% in April 2017 when compared with the previous month and by 6.4% when compared with April 2016, helped by Easter falling in the month.



Department stores experienced the largest month-on-month volume increases with 8.3% growth, followed by Furniture & Lighting (3.9%) and Bars (1.6%), revealed new data from the Central Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, motor trades and books, newspapers and stationery reported the largest monthly volume decreases, down by 1.7% and 1.2% respectively. If these figures are included, retail sales fell by 0.6% month-on-month in April, and rose 1.6% year-on-year.

“The first four months of 2017 has seen strong growth in certain retail categories, and this is reflected in the headline numbers, but that positive performance is by no means consistent across all retail categories, with some retailers reporting a significant decline in trade in recent months. Strong growth in some categories is in fact masking anemic growth, and in some cases decline, in key retail categories and certain retailers are becoming increasingly anxious about weak trade levels," said Thomas Burke, director of Retail Ireland.

“While at a macro level sales trends remain positive, retail sales at a category level have become increasingly erratic in recent months making forecasting and business planning a difficult proposition for retailers. Peaks and troughs in trading, above and beyond the usual seasonal variation, reflect the uncertain nature of Irish consumers at present.

“With ongoing uncertainty over the impact of global geopolitical events such as Brexit and changed US foreign policy, along with fluctuating currency markets, retailers will likely have to continue to operate in an uncertain environment over the coming months."

The report also showed a decrease of 0.9% in the value of retail sales in April 2017 when compared with March 2017, reflecting increased levels of markdowns in the industry. The value of Irish retail sales decreased 0.9% year-on-year.

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