UK retail sales rise by 0.6% in Sep 2021; figure 5.6% in Sep 2020

UK retail sales decreased by 0.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis from September 2020, when they had increased by 6.1 per cent. This was below both the three-month average growth of 1.7 per cent and the 12-month average growth of 10.2 per cent, BRC said in a press release.

Over the three-months to September, non-food retail sales increased by 3.8 per cent on a Total basis and 1.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis. This is below the 12-month Total average growth of 14.0 per cent. For the month of September, Non-Food was in growth year-on-year.

On a two-year basis, non-food sales saw growth of 8.7 per cent for the three-months to September during which in-store sales of such items grew by 10.8 per cent on a total basis and increased by 6.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis. The total growth was below the 12-month average of 23.3 per cent.

On a two-year basis, stores saw a decline of 9.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis and 1.6 per cent on a total basis.

Online non-food sales decreased by 7.3 per cent in September against a growth of 36.7 per cent in September 2020. This is below the three-month average decline of 4 per cent.

Non-food online penetration rate decreased to 40.1 per cent in September from 44.9 per cent in September 2020. While down on last year, it was up 9.7 percentage points on the 30.8 per cent seen at the same point in 2019.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)