Companies that specialise in non-food items might want to invest in promotional labels to drum up business.

According to the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), retail sales in Scotland went up by 1.6 per cent in February 2010, compared with the same period of the previous year.

However, this increase was fuelled largely by strong food sales, whereas a slump was recorded in the non-food sector.

Homeware sales in particular were said to be down during this period, along with furniture, clothing and footwear.

As a result, businesses might be willing to look into adopting new promotional strategies, such as attaching coupons and printed adhesive labels to their products, to get more people parting with their money.

Fiona Moriarty, director of the SRC, commented: "People have to eat, but they are increasingly reluctant to spend on things that are not 'needs'."

This comes after the British Retail Consortium noted that retail sales across the UK as a whole in February 2011 were 1.1 per cent up on the previous year.

Denny Bros Ltd, 18 March 2011