The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for November 2024. Its members accounted for 65.9% of SA clothing sales. Apparel, home and beauty sales grew by 11.0% y-y in November (October: 6.5% y-y), with 6-month rolling growth of 6.9% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 4.0% y-y. Most categories continued their strong momentum, likely aided by festive and Black Friday shopping. We think that the Two-Pot retirement savings withdrawals may have also contributed to the strong performance during the month and could carry over into December. Womenswear grew 11.3% y-y and menswear grew 13.7% y-y. Beauty was the only category that moderated lower, growing by 7.3% y-y in November (October: 11.1% y-y). Homeware sales slowed, growing by 11.8% y-y in November, following the 14.4% y-y growth in October. Total RLC volumes grew by 7.1% y-y in November. Menswear volumes grew significantly by 12.0% y-y. Product inflation eased from 4.6% in October to 3.8% in November. Beauty inflation remains relatively high at 5.5%. The average unit price for the RLC was 70 in November (compared to R117.26 in November 2023).
