The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for March 2025. Its members’ sales in SA accounted for 58.9% of total SA clothing sales. Apparel, home and beauty sales growth improved 5.7% y-y in March (February: 3.1% y-y), with a 6-month rolling growth of 6.5% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 4.4% y-y. Apparel and Beauty categories achieved modest sales growth during March, with the best-performing categories being womenswear (+4.2% y-y), kids & baby (+3.8% y-y) and beauty (+9.2% y-y). Homeware continued its strong sales growth momentum, growing sales by 16.3% y-y in March from the 8.3% y-y in February. Total RLC volume growth rebounded to 2.6% y-y, following volume contraction of -0.4% y-y in February. All categories grew volumes; however, womenswear volumes remain flat at 0.1% y-y in March. Product inflation eased to 2.9% in March from 3.5% in February. The menswear category continued to show price deflation in March (-2.0%), suggesting that discounting activity has continued from February. The average unit price for the RLC was 46 in March (compared to R120.91 in March 2024).
