The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for July 2024. Its members accounted for 61.7% of SA clothing sales. Apparel, home and beauty sales grew by 2.5% y-y in July (June: 9.0% y-y), with 6-month rolling growth of 1.6% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 3.3% y-y. The slowdown in total RLC growth in July can be attributed to a decline in sales in Menswear (-2.1% y-y), and Kids & Baby sales growth slowing to 2.9% y-y from a strong recovery in June (+16.5% y-y). Homeware contracted slightly (-0.1% y-y). Although homeware price inflation eased to 3.1% in July, it was not enough to prevent volumes from falling by -3.2% y-y. After a strong recovery in total volumes in June (+6.5% y-y), volumes were flat at 0.7% y-y in July, mainly due to volume declines in almost all categories apart from Womenswear (+7.7% y-y). Product inflation eased in July to 1.8%, from 2.3% in June. The average unit price for the RLC was 70 in July 2024 (compared to R120.53 in July 2023). Womenswear was the only category in which the average unit price fell in July 2024 (R143.79) compared to July 2023 (R147.70).
