London Retail Sales Heat Up in Warmer Weather

Monday 18th of May 2009 12:34:44 AM

London Retail Sales Heat Up in Warmer Weather

Warmer weather in April bode well for fashion and footwear sales in London. Retail sales in the capital city rose by 5.4 percent on a like-for-like comparison. This number includes fashion and basic wear such polo shirts and t-shirts, and footwear.

Because the weather has been warmer, people have been more likely to go shopping even during a recession. The retail sales numbers were reported by the British Retail Consortium. This year it has been more difficult to make the like-for-like comparisons because of variations in the Easter holiday when comparing this year to last year. When comparing sales from Feburary through April, London's shopping district saw a 5.5 percent increase as opposed to the 5.4 percent for all of London. All numbers are on a like-for-like basis. In comparision, the UK has seen a .4 percent increase.

Another factor leading to higher London retail sales is the weak sterling. Visitors to London took advantage of the falling currency. Stephen Robertson is the Director General of the British Retail Consortium. He was quoted as saying, "Overall, London's customers are proving more resilient to recession. Since the start of the year, London retail sales have consistently outperformed the country as a whole with average growth for the year so far of 5.7 percent compared with almost no growth for the whole UK and London continued that sort of performance into April." He also said, "Sunshine and Easter didn't give London sales growth the big boost they provided for the rest of the UK but that's because the London figures were already well up on other parts of the country."

In the West End of London, the numbers for retail sales also rose by 3.1 percent in April. Because of the weak pound against the euro, domestic shoppers traveled to the West End shopping centers instead of traveling to other countries.