Retail

UK retail sales volumes fell by 1.9 per cent in 2020 over 2019 figures

02 Apr '21

1 min read

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Total UK retail sales volumes fell by 1.9 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019 figures—the largest annual fall on record, according to statistics released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), which said the impact on consumer retail sectors has varied with clothing and fuel volume sales seeing large contractions of 21.5 per cent and 22.2 per cent respectively in 2020 and remain below pre-pandemic levels.

The impact has been particularly severe for non-essential retail. As a whole, retail sales (in volume terms) in Great Britain have recovered from the large contraction in March and April 2020 but still saw the largest annual fall on record.

Overall, online sales rose to a record high of 33.9 per cent as a share of all retail spending.

Insights from timely card transactions data show that the impact of England’s second and third lockdowns on card spending are similar, and significantly less severe than the first lockdown, ONS said in a press release.

Card transaction data also suggests that during the second and third lockdowns, English online spending increased more in response to the fall in in-store spending than during the first lockdown.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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