Scottish retail sales value in April was down 4% on the same month of 2023, hit by the earlier Easter this year, a key survey shows.
The Scottish Retail Consortium, publishing the results of its latest survey today, flagged signs that any recovery in retail sales is “at best fitful and fragile” as it examined the picture stripping out Easter distortions.
It calculated that, comparing March and April with the same two months of last year, Scottish retail sales value was down 0.2%.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: A very hard audience to please for new First Minister
Non-food sales, which tend to reflect more discretionary elements of consumer spending, were in April down by 4.9% on the same month of last year. The year-on-year decline in food sales in April was 3%.
The 4% year-on-year fall in total retail sales value in Scotland in April matched that in the UK as a whole.
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Scottish retail sales tumbled in April compared to the same trading period the year before. Much of this can be attributed to Easter falling unusually early this year, into March, which brought forward shopper purchases and meant shopper footfall and spending in April was constrained.”
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: The sad, sad tale of a Scottish bank
Detailing sub-sector performance, Mr Lonsdale observed: “The decline was felt across the board with food retailing, DIY, gardening, furniture, and household appliances all suffering. Fashion fared poorly too despite the availability of new seasonal ranges and widespread discounting. The only bright spot was computing, which did well after a couple of torrid years.”
He added: “Notwithstanding the Easter distortion, the figures do underline the sense that any recovery in consumer demand and retail sales is at best fitful and fragile."
Mr Lonsdale did, however, flag “some grounds for cautious optimism”.
He said: “Recent reductions in employee national insurance contributions and the freeze in council tax should hopefully support demand over the months ahead, especially with shop price inflation at its lowest level for two-and-a-half years and average wages growing in real terms. Hopefully, this summer’s major sporting events, including the European football championships and Olympics, will also provide a welcome fillip to retail, more so if the Scottish football team and Team GB have something to celebrate.”
READ MORE: Scottish airport in ‘free parking’ trial
Linda Ellett, UK head of consumer, retail and leisure at accountancy firm and survey sponsor KPMG, said: “The positive sales growth seen in March was short lived as the impact of an early Easter and continued wet and chilly weather saw April retail sales fall by 4% year-on-year in Scotland, with both food and non-food sales recording a drop when compared to the previous year.
“On paper, consumers should arguably be feeling more able to go out spending again as economic conditions improve, but on the back of two years of budgeting and cost-cutting, cautious consumers are releasing the purse strings much more slowly than they tightened them, choosing to save or pay down debt. The positive sales figures seen in March due to an early Easter demonstrate the importance that triggers such as warmer weather, events and occasions can have in helping to deliver the necessary impact required to get consumers spending again.”
She added: “Retailers will be hoping that there might still be an early summer interest-rate cut, a strong performance from Scotland in the Euros, and an uptick in temperatures. Together, this might be the trigger to boost consumers’ willingness to spend in the weeks ahead.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here