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The past month on the high street has seen Handmade Burger Company fall into administration and close nine of its stores, and, not surprisingly, Store Twenty One collapse into liquidation, with the subsequent closure of its remaining 122 shops.
Retail sales in June have driven a “renewed sense of optimism” for the UK economy, showing promising recovery from last month’s four-year low. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that sales volumes jumped 1.5% in the three months to June, rising significantly from the 1.4% drop seen in the prior quarter.
Couple this with a prediction from Worldpay that overseas visitors could spend as much as £2.4bn in a spending bonanza by the end of this summer as they take advantage of sterling’s weakness, and all is not looking too gloomy on the high street.
According to CBRE’s bi-annual Global Prime Retail Rents report, New Bond Street has been revealed as the second most expensive retail location in the world, seeing a huge 39.1% increase in prime rental growth in the first quarter compared to the same period last year to give it an average annual rent of £1345 per sq. ft. New York retained its top spot, with Fifth Avenue almost doubling the sq. ft. value of New Bond Street with an average of £2487.52.
An interesting report, Retail Revolutions: The Rise of the Community Shopping Centre, has revealed that an increasing consumer focus on affordability and convenience has seen value and discount retailers increase their UK store count by more than 5000 since 2009. Value retail accounted for 87% of all store growth in the UK during that time. The report also said supermarket chains have increased their convenience offer with more than 1600 stores since 2009.
The online market continues on its steady march. According to new research from GlobalData, clothing and footwear is driving smartphone shopping in the UK – with the sector set to account for 42% of all smartphone spend by 2022. Its latest report says spend via smartphones will outperform spend via tablets to account for 51.5% of the UK mobile and tablet market in 2018 – and is set to grow 112% in the next five years. Key sectors aiding market acceleration via smartphone are clothing and footwear, which have the highest proportion of sales on these devices. However, food and grocery is expected to be the fastest growing sector in terms of sales via smartphone to 2022.
It will be interesting to see how the smartphone shopping trend continues and if this becomes the ‘new’ face of online shopping, as well as how the high street fares over the summer months. FSP aims to keep you up-to-date with all the latest news and trends.
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