Retail sales declined for the 9th month in March, but were much better than expected by retailers as big discounting and sunny weather helped clothing and shoe retailers in posting higher sales.

According to sales monitor of the British Retail Consortium-KPMG, although like-for-like sales of retailers were down by 1.2% in March, it was an improvement on 1.8% fall posted in February. The year-on-year rise was 0.6%, which is better than 0.1% in February.

The industry experts are not reading too much into March data, since sales were boosted by the Easter shopping and also hit by snowy weather and cold in the same period.

According to Helen Dickinson, KPMG’s head of retail, 0.6% growth in total retail sales is not significant enough, but is better than expected.

March 2009 was the first month since May last, as clothing retailers posted sales increase, courtesy hefty discounting and warm weather. It was also the best month for footwear retailers, whose strong sales were driven by women’s shoes. However the floor-covering and furniture retailers posted 10% fall in sales, the biggest in last 9 years.

While like-for-like food sales grew by 4.7%, non-food sales tumbled by 4.3% in March. Internet, phones and mail order sales grew by 10.8%

Despite improvements in March, more retail failures are likely to take place in the coming months, believes Robin Knight at Zolfo Cooper.

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