Fear, Fallacy and Fact: Post-Brexit Retail Sales Smash Doom and Gloom

The first official economic retail data to be made available post-Brexit was released last Thursday by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Interestingly, it puts to rest the fears and uncertainties of the past two months and reveals an increase in consumer demand and sales of 5.9% when compared to the same period of 2015.

The ONS report, published on 18^th August, covers the period July 3^rd – 30^th 2016 and is the first to represent UK sales made in a post-Brexit market, at a time when the nation was experiencing the shockwaves of both a plunging pound and political uncertainty.

This is certainly good news for Cybertill clients, whether independents, nationals or charities, and represents a confident, positive trend for the entire retail sector. It also marks an interesting milestone along the road of consumer reaction and retailer response to Brexit.

Despite the major Brexit storm, this year has thrown up a few noteworthy statistics. Average retail prices fell 2% year on year and 0.8% from June whereas retail spending actually increased by 3.6% year-on-year and rose 1.6% from the previous month. This is the highest rate of growth since March 2015 and supports a pattern of consistent, strong retail growth over the last 3 years.

With UK online sales continuing to rise – now 16.7% higher than this time last year and 1.2% up from June 2016 – plus a weakened pound, more retailers are embarking on or extending multi-channel strategies and cross-border activity to counter competitive forces and broaden the buyer audience.

Commenting on the last two months of post-Brexit “noise”, Ian Tomlinson founder and Chief Executive of Cybertill said:

“Whilst we did experience a few short pauses in some client project investments in the first week of Brexit whilst retailers rightly felt the need to breathe to review the impact, from our experience, we have seen no decline in new business sales or long-term postponement of planned retailer project migration and installation.

“The ONS figures are a reflection of the reality of consumer spend today and hopefully will be a confidence boost to any retailers who are still uncertain about the next couple of years. It is important for us all to remember, that retail, like everything else, is in continual change and it is not just Brexit disturbing the Nations perceived status quo. 2017 will see some new challenges for retailers in many shapes and forms as British consumers behaviour consolidates within the realm of a blended physical and digital world and the demands that will put on instore and multi-channel retailers.”

Whether we have truly emerged from the dark shadow of post-Brexit forecasts is yet to be seen. What the Brexit vote has done is act as a catalyst to retailers to shake up their processes and review their efficiency. It has also put them back in a recession-beating mind-set, focusing on tactics such as profit gap closure, system and resource streamlining, and extending sales channels with minimum disruption and cost.

Critical IT systems sit at the heart of all these tactics as does, we believe, the opportunity to use Cloud technology for EPoS and retail management. The upsides of a Cloud-based infrastructure are many: to unite channels and systems; intelligently manage cross-channel data; reduce costs and optimise profit as part of an online and instore multi-channel strategy; cross-border sales; multi-currency trading; integrated stock management and logistical efficiencies; and of course – the creation of the all-important and consistent omni-channel experience that can generate a happy customer whatever the economy.