Post-Brexit UK Retail Sales Soar Past Expectations

KNOWSLEY, U.K. - Aug. 23, 2016 - PRLog -- The first official economic retail data to be made available post-Brexit was released last Thursday by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), revealing 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.

Ian Tomlinson, CEO of Cybertill, commented "This is certainly good news for our retail 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.

Commenting on the last two months of post-Brexit "noise", Ian added, "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 Nation's 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."

Ian concluded, "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."

About Cybertill Limited – www.retailstore.co.uk

Cybertill's flagship product RetailStore is single cloud platform solution combining  EPoS, ecommerce, mail order, supply chain and head-office software, all of which come together to deliver a real-time, cost-effective solution, allowing retailers to overcome the steep challenges presented by multi-channel selling and to deliver an omni-channel customer experience. The company's client base spans most sectors of speciality retail as well as mainstream retail.  Charity retail is a particular strength, for which there is a tailored solution, CharityStore.