A study has shown that fashion retail sales grew by 3.7 per cent between July 2010 and July 2011, contributing to like-for-like sales growth of 2.6 per cent for UK high streets.
It is thought that the positive results, presented by BDO's High Street Tracker, were partly due to cooler-than-average July weather encouraging early purchases of autumn clothes.
Non-store sales were also up, showing a massive improvement of 39.9 per cent across internet, telephone and catalogue ordering.
BDO's national head of retail and wholesale, Don Williams, said that some of the improvement was due to early discount sales.
"The retailers doing this can have the confidence to continue investing in their multi-channel offering and on quality retail sites in the best locations," he said.
"Many of these sales have been boosted through discounting. What long-term effect this has on margins is a story yet to be told."
Luxury and beauty also performed well, with non-fashion sales increasing by 1.1 per cent - but there was less fortunate news for homeware sales, which fell by 2.1 per cent.
