In a surprise blip retail sales on the high street rose 4.6% in April, that’s up from a fall of 1.2% in March this year. Although attributed to Easter falling in April along with the sunny weather encouraging shoppers out onto the high street any early signs of buyers starting to spend again is good news.
Online sales were also up 12.5%, Sharon Hardiman of the British Retail Consortium said “Online and catalogue sales were boosted by extra customer interest in many of the same things doing well in stores – DIY, outdoor furniture and toys, sandals and summer clothes. That took non-store sales growth back up to virtually the same rate seen in February but it was well below the rates seen in December and January, showing this route to customers is not immune from the effects of recession.”
Until figures for May are available we won’t know if it’s a sign of consumer spending returning or if it is just a seasonal blip. How are your eBay and other online venue sales performing? Have you seen additional sales in the last few weeks or has the sunny weather driven people outside and away from their computers?
2 Responses
Sales are still good, and improving, which is very encouraging. Possibly our eBay sales haven’t grown much in the last year (Amazon and our website performing excellently), and we put this down to huge growth in competition in our market, Best Match (!), and auctions which we have decided to drop as they just aren’t getting anywhere near the value they used to. Still, all things considered, online sales are good.
But when the sun shines, we do notice a downturn in orders. Happily, it’s raining today. 🙂
I have to say that the news is not preaching the usual doom and recession gloom lately as a result of non stop swine flu coverage interupted by MP’s expenses must have helped.
If people are told day in day out that things are so bad then it sets in eventually and they believe it, hence the knock on effect I’ve blogged about before, I think people are out spending now with more tissues than the usual financial issues 😛 😆