A warmer than average start to Autumn has seen fashion sales hit, as nobody is ready to put away their summer clothes just yet
Usually when thinking of how weather can create challenging conditions for stores we are talking about extremes, snow, flooding and heatwaves all have their own effects on buying behaviour. But a warmer than average start to Autumn has seen fashion sales hit, as nobody is ready to put away their summer clothes just yet.
Retail Week report that clothing sales at John Lewis slumped by 6.9% last week due to temperatures of up to 25c putting people off buying warmer clothing. The fashion and clothing market is always cyclical, working season by season with planning decisions made up to a year in advance, so it's nothing like the faster moving sectors, such as food and drink.
And the warm weather has helped sales for the food sector, so while John Lewis has seen low fashion sales, Waitrose has benefitted hugely from the mild Autumn, with barbecue sales up 65% and ice cream 21% percent ahead last week. This is where building weather forecast data into daily, weekly and fortnightly decisions really comes into play, as the nothing is more frustrating than running out of stock of a fast moving product, or even more damaging to the bottom line, having to dispose of unsold fresh produce that shoppers just aren't buying because they'd rather have salad than root vegatebles for example.
One thing is for sure though, once the weather wakes up and realises it is Autumn there will be a nice boost to fashion retailers and the food sector will be clearing out the fresh burgers, bangers and ribs as we start to buy the more traditional warming foods. Pie and gloves at the ready...
