Tag: Canadian market

August retail sales, as reported by StatsCan, indicate Canadian consumers spent 3.8% less in August compared to the  previous month, continuing a trend of softening sales after an initial strong rebound earlier this year.

The Health & Personal Care sector* posted even weaker sales: a 7.0% decrease compared with the prior month.  The August decline follows 3 consecutive months of increases from the low point in April 2020.

Among all categories, building material and garden equipment stores and food and beverage stores showed the strongest increases, whereas clothing stores were unchanged and sales at sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores fell, as did home furnishings.

By region, H&PC retail sales were strongest in Atlantic Canada (+10.3%)  and British Columbia (+2.6%).  Ontario (-12.1%), Quebec (-5.2%) and Alberta (-6.1%) showed the weakest sales versus the prior month.

The same period report shows online sales also slowing down but still significant higher compared with the same period last year.

The Retail Council of Canada reports that the preliminary results for September 2020 also indicate sales softness.

* Source 
H&PC retail category is a broad swath of personal care retail operations that includes pharmacies and optical stores but excludes mass merchandisers and private optometry clinics.  The  H&PC retail category may not be an exact benchmark for individual practices.

April 2020 retail sales report sent shock waves through almost every retail sector in Canada.  Since then the May and June results showed a buoyant bounce-back in most sectors.

The July 2020 StatsCan report of Canadian retail sales, however, show that the rate of the bounce-back has slowed considerably.

From the APRIL low of $43.6 M, May retail sales increased 35.8% and June increased 19.0% over May.

The July numbers,however, are a stark reminder that full recovery of economic activity may not yet be in the cards.  July retail sales reached $57.2 M a mere 1.7% increase over the prior month.

One positive to take from the July numbers is that sales posted 4.5% higher than July 2019.

Taking a sector-specific view July 2020 Canadian Health and Personal Care (H&PC)  retail sales show a similar trend to that of all retail sales.

June H&PC sales showed a strong bounce back of 10% from May, but the July sales rebound, while still positive, were up 1.5% compared to the prior month.

H&PC retail category is a broad swath of personal care retail operations that includes pharmacies and  optical stores but excludes mass merchandisers and private optometry clinics.  The  H&PC retail category might not be an exact benchmark for individual practices, but it is the closest proxy we can gather from the publicly available StatsCan reports.

While each of the sectors showed varying results, so do regional sales. Not all regions across the country shared equally in the positive numbers.

On the plus side, British Columbia and Quebec lead the way with +5.5% and +4.2% month over month sales growth respectively.

Ontario and Man-Sask showed declines of 1.3% and 2.6% respectively in July.

EyeCarebusiness.ca will track H&PC sales as a information bookmark for Eye care Professionals.