High Street
The latest news, updates and analysis on the the British High Street and 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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Sep- 2018 -10 September
August footfall down 1.6% despite some retail park growth
Retail footfall dropped by 1.6% in August despite seeing rare retail park growth in the East and South West of the UK. The figures are according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard’s footfall and vacancies monitor with August seeing a sharper decline than the 0.8% experienced in July,…
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7 September
August high street sales one of ‘worst on record’ as shoppers steer clear
August high street sales have been described as “one of the worst on record” by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO. According to the firm’s High Street Sales Tracker (HSST) for August, UK high street sales declined 2.7% year-on-year – making it the worst August decline for three years. BDO…
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7 September
Wilko appoints Neil Feakins as customer insight and data director
Homeware retailer Wilko has appointed Neil Feakins as as its new customer insight and data director. Feakins has expertise in both insight and data analytics from independent global marketing and media consultancy Ebiquity and industry experience in enabling propositions for customers. This new role is expected to “rally existing Wilko…
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7 September
Booksellers Association tells Amazon to ‘pay a proper share of taxation’
The Booksellers Association (BA) has called for Amazon and other online retailers to be given a taxation overhaul, after it claimed “bookshops have closed because of Amazon”. MPs were warned by the association that Amazon was “putting numerous competitors out of business” and demanded “large scale internet retailers pay a…
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7 September
Argos launches UK-first Google voice shopping service
Argos has become the first company in the UK to offer a voice shopping service for customers that use Google Home devices. The catalogue retailer said the technology will allow around 20,000 to reserve Argos products using voice technology across 850 of its stores. As well as placing reservations with…
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5 September
Electric bikes speed up Halfords sales
Halfords has announced that increased demand for electric bikes has helped the company to achieve a like-for-like sales increase of 2.8% over the 20 weeks leading up to 17 August. Shares rose by 7% this morning following the announcement, bringing the car part retailer’s total value up £653m. The figures…
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5 September
Inditex to sell all its brands online worldwide by 2020
Inditex, the Spanish parent company behind brands such as Zara and Pull&Bear, has announced that it will sell products from all of its brands online around the world by 2020, even in countries where it doesn’t have stores. Pablo Isla, Inditex chairman and CEO, made the announcement during a…
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4 September
Retail sales growth slows during August
UK retail sales growth continued to slow during August as the summer boost comes to an end, according to figures from the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor. In August, UK retail sales increased by 0.2% on a like-for-like basis compared with the same period the previous year. On a total basis,…
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4 September
Footfall ‘better than expected’ in August
Footfall fell by 4.1% in August compared with the same month last year, according to the Ipsos retail footfall tracker. Despite the drop, analysts described footfall levels as “better than expected” as the pace of year-on-year footfall decline slowed in August. Ipsos said this might be down to the success…
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3 September
Boden reports strong sales increase of 13%
Lifestyle retailer Boden has reported a 13% rise in sales for the year ending December 2017 due to an increase in overseas customers. This increase in sales accounted for £347.1m growth.The company also saw its pre-tax profit rise to £27.3m from £26.2m; an increase of 4%. Boden attributed its strong…
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