The Retailer Liaison Committee (RLC) released its Market Sales Report for September 2024. Its members accounted for 65.7% of SA clothing sales.
Apparel, home and beauty sales grew by 1.6% y-y in September (August: 9.5% y-y), with 6-month rolling growth of 2.1% y-y and 12-month rolling growth of 2.9% y-y.
Following the strong sales growth in August, momentum weakened with menswear down -0.9% y-y and kidswear down -1.4% y-y.
Homeware sales growth was relatively strong at 6.6% y-y in September, following the 11.1% y-y growth in August.
Total RLC volumes contracted by 1.3% in September, which is the first contraction since May 2024. Womenswear volume growth was strong (+8.7% y-y), while menswear (-4.4% y-y) and beauty (-11.8% y-y) volumes contracted substantially.
Product inflation eased from 6.9% in August to 3.0% in September. Beauty inflation remains high at 18.2%.
The average unit price for the RLC was R116.54 in September (compared to R113.12 in September 2023).
