The Olympics failed to boost UK retailers in August as consumers stayed at home in order to watch the games, figures showed today (4 September) - leading to one of the worst sales months this year.
Like-for-like sales fell 0.4% in value terms during August, compared with the same month in 2011, according to the BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor. Total sales increased 1.6% over the month.
"There's no evidence here of any Olympic boost to retail sales overall. Sadly, apart from April - distorted by Easter timings - August saw the worst sales growth this year," said BRC director general Stephen Robertson.
"Hot weather and the Olympics did help sales of party food and drink but that was more than offset by a really weak performance for non-food goods.
"It's clear people were absorbed by the magnificent Olympics and had little interest in shopping, especially for major items. Usually-reliable online sales suffered, putting in the worst sales growth since we started the measure four years ago.
"Some retailers told us online activity was particularly thin in the evenings. If people weren't watching television they were more likely to be following the sport on PCs and mobile devices than shopping."
Between June and August, sales increased 0.4% on a like-for-like basis, with non-food rising 0.2%. On a total basis, total sales rose 2.5%, while non-food sales increased 1.6%.
BRC senior analyst Anne Alexandre said that fashion had a "very unusual and disappointing month" in August.
"While men's wear posted a relatively good performance with sports/London 2012 lines doing well and new season items also in demand, women's wear failed to attract customers to autumn/winter ranges.
"New full-price collections were generally available from mid-August but a combination of warm weather, decreased London footfall due to the Olympics, later holidays, an early Eid compared with last year and later back-to-school dates resulted in very weak sales.
"Marked-down summer season items like swimwear were still popular - sales continued longer than planned for some retailers - which in combination squeezed margins significantly," Alexandre said.
Meanwhile, footwear, which has been the top performing category since the beginning of the year, kept the top slot in August - although this time it was led by women's rather than men's footwear.
"The unsettled weather meant transitional products did well but there was demand across the board from boots to sandals.
"London stores suffered from lower footfall due to the Olympics but that was offset by better sales in greater London. Online continued to grow - with some retailers offering new services - albeit with many more visits than actual purchases," said Alexandre.
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