Retailers pay price for Olympic euphoria

London: Retailers failed to benefit from the Olympic spirit across the country in August as families preferred to watch the television than shop online.

The British Retail Consortium reported that the value of sales were up 1.6 per cent in the month compared with a year earlier, one of the weakest annual increases in 2012.

An important force behind the poor performance of retailers was that online sales grew at an annual rate of only 4.8 per cent in August - far below the typical annual rate of 11.6 per cent recorded over the past year.

Stephen Robertson, director-general of the BRC, said he could not see any boost to retail activity from the Olympics. “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,” he said.

While durable goods’ sales had been strong in recent months, sales growth was strongest in footwear, food and clothing. Barbecues proved popular with strong sales of meat, salad and ice-cream.

Book sales were down, as were home accessories, which tend to move in line with the weak turnover of housing.

But with the nation’s attention on London 2012 and not the shops, Helen Dickenson, head of retail at KPMG, said: “It could have been much worse. August is traditionally a weak month for sales and it’s really the next three months that will have a critical impact on retailers’ profitability.”

Financial Times