Responding to the latest ONS Retail Sales Index figures, which showed an 5.8% increase in overall sales (retail sales excluding fuel: J3L2), Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “The retail recovery remains fragile as the industry enters the all-important Christmas period, with November and December typically accounting for over a fifth […]
New research from the National Discount Scheme, My VIP Card, shows that less than 1 in 4 (23%) of shoppers intend to shop locally this Christmas. Due to concerns over the continued rise in Covid cases and also for convenience, the majority of shoppers intend to use online giants, such as Amazon, to deliver all […]
A Midlands homeware and storage group is riding the crest of the homeware boom and considering options for expansion with the support of Lloyds Bank. Cookes Group, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2021, initially received a £200k Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) from Lloyds Bank to support the overheads of its three trading businesses […]
As part of its strategy to increase cyber resilience amongst retailers, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has worked alongside experts at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, to develop a new toolkit which supports business leaders take steps to reduce the threat of a successful attack. The Cyber Resilience Toolkit for […]
The BRC has launched its latest Payment Survey showing card use continuing to rise steadily from 54% of transactions in 2016 to 61% in 2019. This trend has accelerated under coronavirus, which lead to more customers shopping online or paying by card in store. At the same time, the cost to retailers of accepting payments […]
As lockdown restrictions were reintroduced throughout September, online sales returned to patterns that would be expected this time of year. In comparison to the spending surges seen during phase 1 of the lockdown, last month recorded steady seasonal online sales growth of +42% year-on-year (YoY) – below the peak growth of 51% in June, but […]
The British Retail Consortium is today launching a new national advertising campaign calling on the public to start their Christmas shopping earlier to help spread demand during what is traditionally the busiest shopping time of the year. The ‘Shop early, start wrapping, enjoy Christmas’ campaign is designed to encourage the public to embrace the true […]
Loyalty and gift card provider Miconex has developed a new Town and City Gift Cards website that features over 50 of its gift card programmes in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The new site will enable customers to buy gift cards for towns and cities around the UK in one place. Gift cards have to […]
Covering the five weeks 30 August – 3 October 2020 We have replaced the three month averages with 6 month averages as this provides a picture of how retailers have fared over the pandemic. On a total basis, sales increased by 5.6% in September, against a decline of 0.6% in September 2019*, It is above […]
The global footwear market continues to pick up the pace with new healthier lifestyles being associated with the need for more variety in the athletic shoe sector. According to data presented by Stockapps.com, the global footwear market is to rise by 30% in the next 5 years with an increase of $111bn. The industry is […]
