UK's retail sales volume up 0.4% in August 2023

23 Sep '23

2 min read

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Insights

UK retail sales volumes increased by 0.4 per cent in August 2023, recovering from a 1.1 per cent decline in July 2023, according to ONS data.
Non-food store sales grew by 0.6 per cent, with clothing sales up 2.3 per cent in August 2023.
However, online sales volumes dropped by 1.3 per cent, pulling online's share of retail down to 26.9 per cent.

UK’s retail sales volumes saw an increase of 0.4 per cent in August 2023, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This comes after a revised decline of 1.1 per cent in July 2023. Over the past three months leading up to August, retail sales volumes have grown by 0.3 per cent compared to the previous three months.

A significant driver of the rebound was a 0.6 per cent growth in total non-food store sales volumes in August, which includes department, clothing, household and other non-food stores. This followed a 1.2 per cent decline in July, which retailers attributed to poor weather conditions affecting sales. Within the non-food category, clothing store sales volumes rebounded by 2.3 per cent in August, almost fully recovering from a 2.9 per cent drop in July.

However, non-store retailing, which predominantly consists of online retailers, saw a decline in sales volumes of 1.3 per cent in August. This follows a 1.9 per cent boost in July. Online spending values also fell by 0.9 per cent month-on-month due to declines in non-store retailing and other non-food stores, which had both performed strongly in July, as per ONS.

The proportion of retail sales conducted online also dropped slightly, falling from 27.4 per cent in July to 26.9 per cent in August 2023.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)

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