The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for January 2026. Its members’ SA sales accounted for 45.5% of total SA clothing sales.
Total Apparel, Homeware and Beauty recorded good sales growth of 6.1% y-y in January, (December: 2.2% y-y), with a 6-month rolling growth of 3.1% y-y and a 12-month rolling growth of 4.3% y-y.
Total SA sales grew 6.2% y-y in January, while Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia & eSwatini (BLNE) grew 7.0% y-y. The Rest of Africa experienced a sharp slowdown in sales growth of 2.3% y-y in January (December: 15.2% y-y).
Total Apparel sales grew 5.5% y-y in January. Womenswear sales jumped to 7.1% y-y, while Menswear sales also improved 6.2% y-y. Kids & Baby sales grew by 3.7% y-y, following a period of flat growth.
Beauty sales growth accelerated 13.6% y-y, while Homeware sales increased 7.1% y-y for January.
Following four months of contraction, total volumes increased in January by 2.5% y-y (December: -1.3% y-y).
Total product inflation was maintained at 3.6% in January.
The average unit price for the RLC was 36 in January (compared to R105.60 in January 2025).