Insights
Footfall has traditionally been seen as a measure of the health of the high street. On this basis, it looks like town and city centres across the UK are in trouble, with poor footfall levels compared to the pre-pandemic situation. Beauclair’s data, however, shows that there has actually been a recovery in offline retail spending […]
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Despite the cost-of-living crisis, overall retail sales increased in January 2023 compared to December 2022. The Office of National Statistics reported that sales were up 0.5% compared to December 2022, suggesting that shoppers held out for bargains in the January sales. There was also a 0.5% decrease in sales volumes for food shops, which can […]
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This Christmas, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) recorded a 3.8% increase in the amount spent on general retail, including online sales, compared with the previous year. In particular, some high-street retailers experienced surprise growth in sales, including Marks & Spencer’s, JD Sports, and Next. Online retail did not experience similar levels of success with a […]
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As we have moved into retail’s “Golden Quarter,” city centres have proved themselves much more resilient than the rest of the retail sector, with stronger monthly and quarterly growth. Looking at annual data and particularly compared to the same month in 2019 before the lockdown, it becomes clear however that city centres have not yet […]
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Comparing September’s city centre sales data as compiled by Beauclair with data from the ONS highlights how the mix of sectors in city centres has changed dramatically since lockdown with food & drink and grocery being the biggest winners followed by fashion, while general retail, which includes department stores, is the big loser. ONS data […]
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City centre retail sales declined by 4% in September compared to August but increased on a Yo3Y basis. Sales in September 2022 were +2% above sales in September 2019, a 4 percentage-point increase on August’s Yo3Y figure of -2%. Food & Drink is still the strongest sector, but its Yo3Y performance is static Food & […]
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1. Sales in September dropped compared to August Across the 62 city centres that Beauclair is currently monitoring retail sales in September dropped -4% compared to August. There was quite a range between these extremes. Tourist destinations tended to drop by much more, with a drop of over -40% in Edinburgh and drops of around […]
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Beauclair recently released August retail data to its client base of Business Improvement Districts and other town centre managers. The following are some of the highlights based on sales data across 62 cities in Great Britain. All data analyses are presented on a Year-on-3-Year basis, ie. comparing any month’s data against the same month in […]
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August 2022 may be the month in which the cost-of-living crisis finally caught up with city centre retail. The recovery of city centres after lockdown has lagged national trends for retail. City centre retail recovered more slowly from lockdowns than online and local retail. But until July 2022, city centre retail sales grew even as […]
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Beauclair’s data for July 2022, which we have just released to our clients, shows that July was the strongest month for retail sales in city centres since the end of lockdown. This is based on data for our client cities and the cities they have chosen to monitor as their peers and competitors. On average, […]
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