Data: Coronavirus restrictions lead to record low retail spend in 2020

Sales data published today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG shows that in 2020 total retail spend fell 0.3% year-on-year, with non-food sales falling 5%, all but offsetting a 5.4% growth enjoyed by food retailers. 

With two national lockdowns and a series of increasing tiered restrictions from March 2020, which forced ‘non-essential’ retailers to periodically shutter shops, the effect on in-store sales was even more pronounced, down 24% year on year for the period. 

The BRC data showed that, despite much of England being placed into tier-four restrictions in mid-December, Christmas sales were fairly resilient, although nowhere near strong enough to offset losses throughout the year. 

Total sales in December were up 1.8%, according to the BRC, although it noted this was below the 2.5% previous three-month growth figure.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “Covid has led to 2020 being the worst year on record for retail sales growth. Physical non-food stores – including all of ‘non-essential’ retail – saw sales drop by a quarter compared with 2019.

“Christmas offered little respite for these retailers, as many shops were forced to shut during the peak trading period, though this led to a rise in food-based gifts as many shoppers bought what they could from the shops that were still open.

“With shops still closed for the foreseeable future, costing stores billions in lost sales, many retailers are struggling to survive. To avoid the unnecessary loss of shops and jobs, the government should announce an extension to business rates relief for the worst-affected businesses as soon as possible. With many retailers making decisions over their future, the government must act decisively.”

Sales data from Barclaycard painted an even grimmer picture for retail Christmas sales, finding that customer spending for the period actually declined 2.3%, although these figures also took into account spending on hospitality. 

In terms of online spending growth, Barclaycard said digital grocery spend for the Christmas period soared 88% year on year. Meanwhile, spending on non-food items for the period was 44.8% in December 2020, up from just 6.4% in 2019, according to the BRC’s data. 

Barclaycard found that overall spending on non-essential items fell 4.9% over the period – the most pronounced decline since the end of the first national lockdown in June 2020. 

Along with pureplay and multichannel retailers, local high street specialists, such as bakers, butchers and off-licences, and specialist toy and gift shops and jewellers enjoyed sales boosts during the period, up 43.7% and 61.9% respectively. 

The embattled fashion industry also saw a much-needed uptick during the period, with online sales up 34%.