STAY HOME and SHOP

Lockdown leads to falling retail sales, but we’re buying more than ever online

Nearly one in four pounds spent in March was online, with food and household goods seeing the biggest rise in spending.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that online spending jumped by 8.3% in a month in March, at a time when all retail spending fell sharply by 5.7%.

It was the biggest monthly fall in retail spending since figures began in February 1996, as measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak have made many high street shops off-limits.

As consumers swapped to online stores instead, 22.3% of the money people in the UK spent on shopping last month was spent online - the highest proportion since records began in 2008.

Department stores and shops selling household goods were the biggest beneficiaries of the switch online - with sales up 47.4% and 36.9% respectively in a month.

Both types of retailers saw record proportions of their overall sales from online purchases.

For department stores, 23.7% of money spent was online, up from 16.4% in February, while the proportion rose from 14.4% to 21.6% for shops selling household goods.

Overall, the value of all sales at department stores rose 2.2% in March, following a general downward trend in recent months, with food and household goods sales increasing.

Retailers suggested a jump in sales of fridges and freezers contributed to the rise. A John Lewis spokeswoman told the BBC in early March the retailer was seeing a rise in freezer sales, especially chest freezers, which was unusual for the time of year.

With consumers keen to make sure they were well-stocked to see out the pandemic, food retailers also saw an online boost in sales, up 17.9% in a month.

With online delivery slots in short supply, and also strong in-store growth as some of the few businesses still allowed to open, food stores didn’t see as big a shift to online shopping, with just 5.7% of spending via websites.

Overall, spending in food stores, both online and off, rose 10.3% in March, a record jump - with many retailers saying coronavirus, and in some cases stockpiling and panic buying, was the reason for the change.

The figures also suggest we may have increased our alcohol spend as pubs and bars were shut.

Off-licences reported sales up by a third (32.6%) in March, although they account for only a small proportion of our spending, with many consumers opting to purchase their alcohol in supermarket stores.

Clothing and footwear stores were hardest hit by lockdown - with high street stores closed and online spending also dropping - with spending down more than a third (35.5%) in a month.

Department stores and supermarkets also saw falls in their clothing departments.

While a record one in four pounds (26.6%) spent on clothing and shoes was online, sales through websites were still down 16.1% in March.

Kyle Monk, Head of Retail Insights and Analytics at the British Retail Consortium said: “The coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on the retail industry and it’s not over yet.

Many non-essential retailers have had to close or limit themselves to online trading in line with Government guidance, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

“The ONS reported an increase of 22.3% in online sales, as many consumers make the move to online, particularly those in vulnerable categories, it is very likely that some of this shift will persist after COVID-19 passes.”