Consumers put off by lack of sales
HIGH-STREET sales suffered the sharpest monthly fall in more than three years last month as less discounting kept consumers away from stores.
The BDO High Street Sales Tracker said like-for-like sales fell by 4 per cent compared to a year ago, the greatest monthly drop since September 2011, due to lower footfall levels and a slide in discounting from a year ago. The result reflects a tough comparison against 2014, which saw the best March performance for four years as shoppers enjoyed unseasonably warm weather.
The survey also points out that this year Easter falls two weeks earlier, and some consumers may be delaying purchases until this weekend, when they will have more time to shop. Official figures last week showed that retail sales rose by a sharper-thanexpected 0.7 per cent in February, suggesting shoppers were "spending the windfall'' from lower food and oil prices.
