UK retail sales hit impressive highs in February despite extended periods of poor weather.
Numerous retailers, forecasters and industry experts believe that the increase in sales and footfall is largely down to the impending coronavirus epidemic, which is encouraging shoppers to stock up on essentials such as toilet rolls, tinned foods, freezer items and healthcare paraphernalia.
It seems increasingly likely that coronavirus – scientific name COVID-19 – will spread across the UK in the coming weeks and months, and despite government officials repeatedly claiming that we will not face shortages in the shops, it would appear that shoppers are not taking this message to heart.
According to results released by the British Retail Consortium, sales rose by 0.1 percent year on year in February, and while this may not sound like a significant figure, it should be remembered that opportunities to visit shops were reduced massively because of the impact of storms Dennis, Jorge and Ciara, each of which led to severe storms and spates of flooding.
Online food sales rose by a whopping 3.6 percent during February, which is also largely attributed to the combination of poor weather and concern over the spread of COVID-19.
However, while the threat of COVID-19 has positively impacted a number of supermarkets and those retailers with the capacity to offer items that have a long shelf life, it would appear that, in the near future, sellers with a focus on fresh food – grocers and butchers, for example – may find themselves in difficulties.
Speaking on this issue at the beginning of March Paul Martin, KPMG’s UK Head of Retail, said: “In the short-term, any potential supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19 will be felt acutely by grocers, so developments will have to be watched closely.”
With the COVID-19 cloud now hovering over everyone in the UK, some retailers have started to take extreme measures, and are limiting sales of particular items. Tesco, for example, has issued a statement telling its customers that they will not be able to purchase more than five iterations of particular items, including dry pasta, antibacterial gels and some specific tinned vegetables.
However, some experts have suggested that, with more and more people likely to work from home or to take time out of the office, sales of products via the internet could soar. In fact, delivery firm ParcelHero has stated that it believes e-commerce sales could increase to a massive 40 percent of all retail sales in the coming weeks. Currently, only around 20 percent of goods are bought via the internet.