Mainline apparel stocks were lower in afternoon trading, led by Next PLC (LSE:NXT) after it was revealed that sales declined by 0.8% in the 12 weeks to 22 June, reversing a 1.4% increase in the prior period.
According to industry data, volumes fell 2.4%, while average selling prices rose 1.6%.
The full-price sales mix increased slightly to 68.1%, but channel dynamics showed weakness in online sales, which dropped 2.8%, following a year of strong growth.
Offline sales were broadly flat, easing from 2.1% growth previously. UBS notes this marks a clear slowdown in online momentum in data released by Kantar earlier on Tuesday.
Among key retailers, Next increased full-price sales by 1.3% and gained market share, consistent with the company’s own 7.3% full-price sales growth reported for its first quarter.
Primark’s sales grew 2.4% with a slight market share gain, although Associated British Foods’ UK like-for-like sales fell 6% for the half-year to March.
Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS) suffered a sharp 58.7% drop in online sales after a cyber event, dragging overall sales down by 13.1%. Shein continued strong growth at 17.6%, while Asos saw a 16% fall in sales.
"We look for cues from the upcoming releases to get a better sense of spending trends, channel mix and promotional intensity," said UBS in a research note.
Next shares were down 1.5%, while the FTSE 350 Retail Index was down 1.1%.