T-Shirts and Clothing Sales

Tuesday 01st of September 2009 03:52:10 PM

T-Shirts and Clothing Sales

The recession has not been kind to the fashion industry. Clothing and fashion accessories have been two of the hardest hit businesses because clothing is one of the budget categories where spending can be postponed. That’s why closets and dressers are full of well-worn t-shirts and last year’s styles.

This fact became evident when retail sales numbers for August in central London came in at 5.9 percent lower than sales in August of last year. This is the lowest sales reported in four years. It’s not just clothing either that are taking a beating. It is clothing, accessories, footwear, furniture and house wares.

This is what the Head of Retail at KPMG, Helen Dickinson, said, “A really disappointing month for the capital's retailers with like-for-like sales falling by 5.9% in comparison to a rise of 8.6% in August 2008. This was the first month when London's like-for-like sales fell this year. The timing of the bank holiday, which fell into August's results for 2008 but not in 2009, did not help the overall figures. The results for the month and the rest of the year need to be considered in the light of the performance last year, which continued to weaken as the year progressed. Negative like-for-like sales on the back of \negative like-for-like sales in the same month in the previous year will present many retailers with some serious challenges around controlling costs and generating cash.”

The Director of the British Retail Consortium, Stephen Robertson, told fashionunited.co.uk, “Central London footfall saw the biggest drop for over a year and a half. The pound is less weak than it was, eroding London's appeal for overseas visitors. Like domestic shoppers, tourists are also more cautious. Clothing and footwear and big-ticket household goods suffered the biggest sales falls. People who bought summer fashions during June’s heat wave and warmer clothes in July’s downpours didn’t buy more and customers are still reluctant to make major commitments."