The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for January 2025. Its members accounted for 65.4% of SA clothing sales.
Apparel, home and beauty sales grew 7.9% y-y in January (December: 4.0% y-y), with 6-month rolling growth of 6.7% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 4.3% y-y.
Most categories showed improved sales growth in January. Beauty (+9.1% y-y) and kids & baby (+7.8% y-y) sales were the two best-performing categories within apparel and beauty. Homeware sales grew 11.1% y-y in January, from the 8.5% y-y in December.
Total RLC volume growth was modest at 4.5% y-y, from flat growth of 0.5% y-y in December. Kids & baby volumes recovered to 4.1% y-y in January. Beauty volumes continue to fall, with volumes contracting by 1.4% y-y in January.
Product inflation moderated to 3.2% in January from 3.4% in December. Inflation in menswear was flat at 0.8% in January, following deflation of 1.0% recorded in December.
The average unit price for the RLC was 88 in January (compared to R102.56 in January 2024).