UK's retail sales volumes up 0.5% MoM in January 2023: ONS

Clothing store sales volumes fell by 2.9 per cent in January 2023, following four months of positive growth, while household goods stores sales volumes grew by 0.8 per cent.

Sales volumes fell by 0.9 per cent in the three months to January 2023 when compared with the previous three months. Compared with the same period a year earlier, retail sales volumes fell by 5.7 per cent in the three months to January 2023, as per ONS.

Between December 2022 and January 2023, non-store sales volumes rose by 2 per cent, largely because of online retailers who attributed the rise to promotional sales.

Total non-food stores sales volumes (total of department, clothing, household and other non-food stores) rose by 0.6 per cent over the month, following a fall of 2.5 per cent in December 2022. Anecdotal evidence across several sub-sectors noted that growth was boosted by January 2023 sales promotions after a relatively poor December. Despite this pickup, sales volumes were 2.9 per cent below their pre-COVID-19 February 2020 levels.

Within non-food stores, the sub-sector of other non-food stores reported a monthly rise in sales volumes of 3.6 per cent; driven by strong growth in carpets and furnishing stores.

The proportion of retail sales online fell to 25 per cent in January 2023 from 25.7 per cent in December 2022; despite this fall, it remains significantly above pre-COVID-19 levels (19.8 per cent in February 2020).

Online spending values fell by 2.1 per cent in January 2023, because of monthly falls across all industries except non-store retailing and clothing stores.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DP)