In line with recent reports about a rise in retail footfall in April, the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor has shown the best retail sales growth for three years.
April sales figures were 4.6% up on last year on a like-for-like basis. However, the timing of Easter and the recent warmer weather have played a major role in the uplift.
DIY and gardening were boosted in April as: "warmer, sunny weather, especially at weekends, helped gardening and outdoor DIY to achieve strong gains against a cold, wet April last year. Gardencare, seeds, plants and supplies, lawnmowers and tools all benefited. Indoor decorating continued to benefit from the trend to improving rather than moving home, and value ranges for DIY products were popular."
Homewares had more of a mixed bag as: "home accessories sales rose above their year-earlier level to show their best growth for a year. Warm sunny weekends helped outdoor living and picnicware but for indoor products, trade remained tough, limited by continued pressure on household budgets. Household textiles showed some improvement but remained down on a year ago."
However, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves warns BRC director general Stephen Robertson. He said: ""The best sales growth for three years is good news but let's be cautious. A sunny Easter that fell in April this year is the key reason why overall sales are up compared with last year when Easter was in March and miserable. Sales of garden goods, outdoor leisure, clothing and food did well but other non-food sectors missed out on the seasonal boost and the total spent on food rose less than food inflation, indicating the amount sold dropped.
"Following a tough winter, there's some pent up demand but there's no reason to think customers suddenly feel flush or eager to spend. With unemployment set to grow through the rest of the year, mounting jobs worries will hold back spending for some time. It would be great if the historically weak performance of the last twelve months was behind us but we shouldn't celebrate yet."