December 2017
Featured in this insight: Retail
Black Friday helped boost retail sales, according to recent ONS report: With Christmas around the corner and the aftermath of Black Friday sales, UK retail sales increased by 1.1% from last month, according to figures taken from the 29th of October to the 25th November this year.
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the 1.1% had beaten expectations by 0.7%, as economists predicted a 0.4% growth following last month’s sales figures.
The report stated that household goods stores had the strongest growth rate at 2.9% for the quantity bought and 2.5% for the amount spent. Furthermore, the report found that furniture, lighting equipment & household articles were the biggest contributing factor to the three-month on three-month growth rate, followed by electrical household appliances.
Nonetheless, electrical household appliances were the main contributor to retail sales’ month-on-month growth, as the quantity bought increased by 8.6% and the amount spent also increased by 7%.
However, after comparing retail figures from the last three months with last year’s results, the 1% growth was said to be the weakest pace since May 2013. Nonetheless, the ONS report covered figures from Black Friday and did not include figures from Cyber Monday’s sales, which was on the 27th of November.
Commenting on the statistics, ONS Senior Statistician, Rhian Murphy, said: “Underlying retail growth remained reasonably strong in the last few months, household goods stores had a good November, with a number of businesses saying that Black Friday promotions boosted sales.”
However, UK economist at Capital Economics, Ruth Gregory, believed that the increase in consumer expenditure could simply have been the preparation for the run-up to Christmas.
View more of our sector specific insights: Retail
