High street sales decline ''showing signs of stabilising'

A decline in high street sales in recent months appears to be stabilising, according to a new report.

This is the claim made in a study by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which has noted that sales contracted year-on-year during September 2011, something operations management professionals in retail may be interested to learn.

However, the pace of decline appears to be moderating, the organisation suggested, with sales volumes growth standing at -15 per cent this month, almost unchanged from the -14 per cent recorded in August.

Although the pace of contraction was worse than expected, the CBI pointed out that falling purchasing was reported across all the major retail sub-sectors, with furniture and carpets, department stores, clothing and footwear and leather sales most severely affected.

"With the consumer squeeze set to get tighter with the winter utility bills rise, we expect retailers will face a challenging October," predicted Judith McKenna, chair of the CBI Distributive Trades Panel.

Continuous improvement policies may be used more widely by retailers, as the British Retail Consortium recently warned that companies in the non-food sector in particular may be finding current conditions more difficult than recent government data indicates.