Economy
The latest news, updates and analysis on the economy and how it is affecting the UK retail industry. Sign up to the Daily Briefing and let Retail Sector’s business journalists keep you in the picture.
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Oct- 2018 -12 October
Boots sales fall 3% due to ‘decline in UK pharmacy funding’
Boots has announced a 3.4% fall in sales between June and August 2018 comparison with the same period last year. The pharmacy chain blamed “lower prescription volume and a decline in UK pharmacy funding” for the sales drop, in its latest financial report. Sales in its pharmacies fell by 1.2%…
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8 October
Quiz issues profit warning leading to 25% share tumble
Clothing retailer Quiz has released a profit warning, five months after announcing a revenue growth of 30%. Shares in Quiz dropped by 25% following the announcement with it claiming its recent performance was “behind our expectations” adding that the company’s performance “declined” during the second half of the financial year.…
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8 October
Footfall continues to fall in September
Footfall continued on its decline in September, according to the Ipsos Retail Performance Weathermap. All regions saw a year-on-year drop in footfall, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording a 3.3% decline and northern England seeing 5.5% less retail visitors. The Midlands, south west England and Wales and London and the…
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3 October
Shop prices rise for second month in row
Shop prices increased for two consecutive months – the first consecutive growth in five years – according to the latest British Retail Consortium and Nielsen Shop Price Index. Inflation increased by 0.2% from the previous month with food being the main driver for the hike in prices. Food showed a…
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Sep- 2018 -27 September
One in four UK small retail businesses ‘fearful’ of Brexit, research finds
A quarter of small UK retail businesses admit they are “fearful” of Brexit, data from YouGov analysed by Vend has revealed. The retail software management company accessed a research sample of over 1,000 senior managers in the retail sector, working at organisations with fewer than 20 staff, on YouGov’s ‘profiles…
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27 September
New research shows majority of British people will buy local this Christmas
New research into Christmas online shopping has revealed that British people are increasingly buying from home-grown brands. The research, from CJ Affiliate’s Holiday Intelligence Report, showed that Christmas shopping in recent years has seen cross-border shopping volumes peak around the world, except in Britain. UK cross-border retail sales over the…
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21 September
House of Fraser decline leads to French Connection store closures
French Connection has announced it will be shuttering more of its stores following the closure of two under-performing branches in the last six months. The fashion retailer blamed the decline of House of Fraser and poor high street footfall on the fresh closures, and lost £15m in the six months…
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20 September
Online retail sales stay steady; mobile growth hits ‘all time low’
UK online retail sales held steady this August, as shopper spending reached 12.8% growth year-on-year (YoY) according to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. The growth was in line with the three and 12 month rolling average increases of 12.8% and 12.9%, but below the three-month average 15.3% growth.…
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12 September
More than 75% of retail payments now made by card
Retail purchases made by card accounted for 76% of all retail sales made in 2017, according to the latest annual Payments Survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) . The trade association said this has partly been driven by UK customers increasingly using cards for lower value payments, traditionally dominated…
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11 September
Amazon Prime users set to more than double in the next decade
Analysts predict the number of Amazon Prime subscribers will more than double in the next decade rising from 101 million at the end of 2017 up to 275 million. Citigroup analysts say “Prime members are growing 35% to 40% per annum” with analyst Mark May raising his 12 month price…
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