The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for October 2024. Its members accounted for 65.7% of SA clothing sales. Apparel, home and beauty sales grew by 6.5% y-y in October (September: 0.8% y-y), with 6-month rolling growth of 3.6% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 3.5% y-y. Most categories showed strong recoveries in October, with menswear sales rebounding to 7.6% y-y and kidswear up 2.5% y-y. Homeware sales continued its strong sales momentum, growing sales by 14.1% y-y in October, following the 7.9% y-y growth in September. Total RLC volumes grew by 2.8% y-y in October. Womenswear volume growth was strong (+4.4% y-y), while kidswear volumes contracted by 1.5% y-y. Product inflation eased from 6.3% in September to 4.7% in October. Beauty inflation remains relatively high at 7.6%. The average unit price for the RLC was 99 in October (compared to R112.68 in October 2023).
