Wet weather and discounting turn homeowners' focus indoors, increasing sales of homewares and furniture.
The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for July 2009 revealed that non-food sales were up, with homewares, flooring and furniture benefiting in particular from clearance discounts and very wet weather. The BRC explained that the rain and changeable weather had "turned minds to indoors after June's heatwave".

Overall, UK retail sales values rose 1.8% on a like-for-like basis and 3.6% on a total basis from July 2008. According to the BRBC, the figures reveal that this July was slightly stronger than June but that the growth was against a weaker July in 2008.

Non-food non-store sales were up 20% on July last year, again benefiting from clearance sales.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson said: "The largely cooler, wetter second half of the month turned attention indoors helping sales of furniture and homewares - which have been under pressure throughout the downturn. There are signs that people are using holidays to improve their homes rather than spending on going away."

KPMG head of retail Helen Dickinson said: "Furniture and floor coverings and house textiles finally had a good month after many months in the doldrums, although achieved off a very low base in July last year."