Furniture and flooring sales soar over Easter

David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: “The renewed confidence in the housing market inspired homeowners to invest in their property once again during April.

“Sales of furniture and flooring increased over the Easter break as consumers not only had the confidence to refresh their décor, but also to invest in big ticket items.”

As well as furniture and flooring, sales of children’s’ clothing also improved.

However, like-for-like food sales are down by 2pc over the last three months. This reflects the tough environment for the major supermarket retailers and the deflationary impact of price cuts on key food items.

Mr McCorquodale added: The last three months’ figures, which eliminate the distortion of Easter’s timing, reveal that total food sales have been flat at best.

“Price wars may be good news for the consumers but mean that grocers have to urgently rethink business models to maintain margins.”

However, the improvement in non-food sales, including the traditional Easter boost in furniture sales, provided “clear signs” that the economy is improving, the BRC added.

Helen Dickinson, director-general of the BRC, said: “There are now clear signs that the retail economy is expanding as retailers offer great new products and competitive prices to consumers who are still watching their spending very closely.”

Online sales rose by 11.2pc in April the data shows. This increase is almost double the rate of growth in April 2013, when online sales rose 6.3pc.

According to the BRC, online sales now account for 16.1pc on non-food sales in the UK, compared to 15.9pc in the same month last year.

more