London Designer Outlet reports strong sales since reopening

London Designer Outlet (LDO) has reported strong sales since it was permitted to reopen at the beginning of this month following the end of England’s second national lockdown.

Total sales at the capital’s outlet centre are up 22 percent compared to post-lockdown October levels, and even up a slight 0.4 percent increase year-on-year, an important figure considering how difficult this year has been.

The outlet centre, which is currently in Tier 2 restrictions, saw average spend soar across its womenswear (+54 percent), menswear (27 percent), and gifts and accessories (26 percent) categories on the Friday and Saturday following reopening compared to the month of October.

That performance has been driven by the outlet’s athleisure brands such as Adidas, Nike and Puma, which saw sales up 42 percent year-on-year. Some of the stores saw their best performing days in terms of turnover for the year, according to LDO.

It comes as many brands at the London shopping centre offer bumper deals ahead of Christmas to make up for losses during the country’s lockdowns this year.

Realm, the British outlet operator that manages LDO, was upbeat on the shopping destination’s performance since reopening. “Our first priority always has been and will remain the comfort of our guests. That’s why we’ve adopted such stringent health and safety measures, including limiting the number of people that can enter London Designer Outlet at any one time,” said Sue Shepherd, Realm’s general manager of LDO, in a statement.

“We’re therefore delighted with how our first week of trading, post-lockdown has gone, with encouraging numbers of guests finding some significant deals as we enter the festive season. It shows that physical retail is still an appealing experience for so many and it’s why we’re working hard to enure everyone still has a great time, safely.”

Photo credit: LDO