The surge is strong, say our retailers
READERS' SURVEY • May 23, 2021
And with better quality sales and less price sensitive customers
Flooring stores report a strong surge in demand in The Stocklists reader survey taken one month after the re-opening of non-essential retail across the UK. And optimism is running high for the year ahead.
Asked to compare their current trading with the same period in “normal” 2019, more than half said trading volumes were “much better” and a quarter said they were a little better with a similar proportion reporting a similar performance to 2019.
As a result, 75% of retailers said they expected to end the year with sales up by more than 10% on a typical year, of which a third said they expected to be more than 20% up, all assuming no further lockdowns. Only 6% are expecting to end the year down overall.
We asked about pricing and almost all retailers (97%) said they had put up prices, with 30% saying they had made substantial increases. This follows significant and repeated price hikes from suppliers so we were interested to find out what retailers thought of those increases. A huge 86% of retailers believed the increases from manufacturers and suppliers were generally reasonable.
“It’s a level playing field as we have had to pass on price increases but so have our competitors,” said a reader in Shropshire. But there was some criticism about exceptional increases in wood floors and the fact that wool ranges had been increased when the wool price was so low.
And despite the well-publicised problems with stock, supply and service, suppliers got a vote of confidence from their customers. Only 14% of retailers thought suppliers had failed to cope well with the situation, 75% were generally happy and 10% praised the service they had received.
However, many respondents said supplier performance had been mixed across different firms and one reader in Essex commented: “There have been some stock issues and long delays, but it’s generally okay. When there are delays, it tends to be months. But we have noticed lots of discontinued ranges that haven’t been notified to us. We feel they are running down stock before informing us and we are getting upset customers due to this.”
Most retailers are welcoming suppliers’ reps back into their stores but 17% are still cautious and decline visits.
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