High street sales plunge in "disastrous" November, BDO says

(Sharecast News) - High street sales plunged in November, falling at their steepest levels in nearly four years, with retailers bracing for a tough Christmas selling period amid an atmosphere of "economic anxiety". That's according to BDO, which released the results of its monthly High Street Sales Tracker on Monday, which showed sales were down 5.8% in November, compared with an already weak November 2023 when sales fell 0.3% year-on-year.

This marked a sharp pullback from the 4.1% annual growth registered in October and was the worst performance for the sector since January 2021, according to BDO, with sales both in-store and online falling sharply compared with last year.

In-store sales were 5.5% lower, with fashion sales down 8%, which BDO put down to "extreme weather conditions". Online sales meanwhile tanked 7.8%.

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO, said the industry was in for a "very rocky 2025", as businesses react to policy changes announced in October's Autumn Budget.

"These results are disastrous for the retail sector, with just one more month of the so-called 'Golden Quarter' left. Despite the hype around events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we've seen heavy and prolonged discounting throughout most of November, but this has failed to get consumers spending." Michael said.

"The industry has been very vocal about the detrimental impact that some of the measures announced in the Autumn Budget will have on their cashflow and on their bottom line from next Spring. This sense of economic anxiety seems to have reached consumers too with the cost of living still higher than it has been in previous years and recent announcements about further rises to energy prices."

Michael called on the government to "take note" of the data and work with retailers and their supply chains to "alleviate some of the upcoming heavy burdens".