Retailers get relief as sales figures show more winners than losers
Car Sales 2 By 2% Just Shop Cummins And And Were Sales Larry Pic; Fell Over 5% By Beverage Food Down
Retailers may have received some relief last month amid falling inflation as the number of business types that reported sales growth outnumbered the ones that reported declines.
Central Statistics Office figures for March showed there were five losers and eight winners across the 13 types of retail business that the CSO regularly tracks, in terms of the volume of retail sales. This is a reversal of the results recorded in the previous month.
Motor trades, department stores and food and beverage outlets were among the five retail sectors to post annual declines in volume sales in March.
Sales at department stores declined by just over 4%, but this is a marked improvement on a 10% annual decline recorded in February.
Food and beverage shop sales were down by just over 5% and car sales fell by 2.2%.
Electrical goods, clothing stores and book shops were among the eight retail businesses to post annual sales increases in terms of the quantity of goods they sold in the month.
Stationary and book shops sales volume jumped by 9.7%, representing the largest increase out of the 13 retail business types.
The CSO also found that retail sales in March rose robustly by 2.6% from a year earlier, when measured in money or value terms, and increased by 1% the same period and jumped 1.7% in the month in volume terms.
Meanwhile, separate figures from Kantar showed prices continue to bite consumers despite falling inflation.
The market data provider said that while value sales rose this month, “grocery price inflation is the real driving factor behind this rather than increased purchasing.”