The proportion of inde­pendent newsagents and convenience stores growing their sales or profits is in decline as the sector is suffering a major sales slump.

In the latest instalment of the Retail Sentiment Tracker report, a survey of 200 shop owners by Better Retailing’s publisher Newtrade Me­dia, the number of stores turning a greater profit than the year before fell from one in four in Janu­ary to less than one in five stores in July.

Sales and footfall were also down for nearly half of all local shops, with less than a quarter report­ing increases in these im­portant metrics. The number of stores that were confident that their sales will increase over the next year is also down, from 57% to 51%.

Despite the challenges, stores were more satisfied with the support given by their major wholesaler than six months ago. However, the opposite was true for suppliers and brands, which saw a dip in retailer approval.

Report author and Newtrade head of retail engagement Stefan Apple­by said stores had called for supplier help with promotions, and the latest survey showed retailers looking for better supplier advice in traditional and emerging categories.

“There is a desire for better supplier support to really deliver what shop­pers want,” he added.

The only two categories up on last year in more than half of stores were parcels (up for 63% of outlets) and vapes (51%).

Newspapers and to­bacco achieved the most widespread declines, down in 75% and 62% of stores, respectively. Ambient grocery and gifts, stationery and cards were also hard hit, all down in more than 40% of outlets.

In response, the number of retailers that said they would “shop around” at different wholesalers to get better deals has increased to 71% of all retailers.

Retail Sentiment Tracker reveals what retailers growing sales are doing differently

The research also revealed the store features most linked to reporting in­creased sales.

The greatest is home grocery delivery. More than 60% of stores win­ning extra sales this year offer the service, compared with just 27% of retailers reporting falling sales.

Despite the link, gro­cery delivery itself is not driving the sales success. More stores offering the service saw their deliv­ered sales decline than in­crease in the past year.

Asked about the trend, one industry expert told Better Retailing the correlation was due to the skills stores of­fering home delivery have and the impact these have on overall performance. They said these include greater professionalism, higher store investment, better ranges, better use of social media to grow sales and involvement in more community initiatives.

Food to go, hot food and cold served drinks were also strong indica­tors of sales success, but many stores are missing out on these categories altogether.

The data also suggests bigger is better when it comes to store size. The average site with sales growth was 1,800sq ft, compared with an av­erage size of 1,000sq ft for those with poor year-on-year performance.

Read more advice for independent convenience retailers