Scottish retail is slow in November but online pushes sales up

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 14, 2016

Scottish retail sales fell 1.5% in November with Black Friday failing to provide a boost, the latest Scottish Retail Sales Monitor, showed. Like-for-like sales dropped 0.2% last month.

While food sales were flat, it was non-foods, including fashion, that had the toughest time. Sales here fell 2.7%.

The Scottish Retail Consortium said physical stores suffered as a larger chunk of sales in November migrated online with electronic goods, other technology and fragrances among the strongest performing online categories.

Craig Cavin, of KPMG, which compiles the research, said: "Online is the new black in 2016 as cyber sales drove much of the growth while stealing the show on Black Friday. This may well herald the tone of years to come, with increasingly sophisticated online sales technology giving consumers a convenient, yet rich shopping experience, without the hassle of crowds."

But with online sales taken into account too, November’s total non-food retail sales rose 1.1%.

SRC director David Lonsdale said: "The two months leading up to Christmas account for a fifth of annual retail spending, and these figures provide grounds for optimism for the rest of this crucial trading period.

"However, the signs for 2017 are less positive. Both retailers and consumers will be concerned by potential headwinds which could see household disposable incomes squeezed; notably forecasts about rising inflation and planned increases in council tax.”