Retailers optimistic as sales up for third consecutive month!

The Distributive Trades Survey of 20,000 company outlets carried out by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reveals that 60 per cent of retailers saw the volume of sales rise during September.

The CBI’s distributive trades survey for September showed unexpected strength as the balance of retailers reporting sales up year on year climbed to a six-year high at plus 49%, compared with plus 39% in August.

The increase is also reflected in the volume of orders placed upon suppliers (39%), surpassing last month’s balance of 29%.

Ian Mc Cafferty, CBI chief economic advisor, says: “The bank holiday weekend, combined with the tail-end of summer sales have resulted in a bumper period for retailers.”

It was the third consecutive increase and followed a decent month for clothing and footwear sales in particular, the business lobby group said.

Retailers also expect sales to be strong next month, but economists warned consumers are likely to find life much harder going as the public spending squeeze and rising food prices weigh on sentiment.

They also noted that the official measure of retail sales showed a much weaker picture during August.

The clothing and footwear & leather sub-sectors saw particularly strong sales growth, which are likely to have been boosted by the arrival of new autumn ranges. Solid sales growth was also recorded in the furniture & carpets sector.

Looking to October, a balance of +47% of firms expect a higher volume of sales than a year ago.

Business Challenges which retailers may face include:

•Ensuring visibility and proper tracking of inventory for multi-variant items.
•Creating item codes for multi variant items.
•Efficiently completing inventory reporting and sales analysis by size and colour

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Sources: Smallbusiness.co.uk; finfacts.ie; nebusiness.co.uk