Shoppers are heading back to the high street
Shops enjoyed a surge in spending as people flocked to high streets following the easing of restrictions that saw non-essential stores reopening after the most recent lockdown.
Office for National Statistics(ONS) figures show sales in April jumped 9.2% compared with March – with clothes stores proving particularly popular and sales jumping by 25.3%.
Shoppers focused on clothes for enjoying new freedoms, including outerwear and knitwear, compared with period shopping habits of wearing comfortable clothes for being stuck indoors.
The easing of travel restrictions also saw a spike in fuel sales, with petrol stations seeing a 69.4% jump compared with March.
But with stores reopening, online retailers across all sectors saw a fall in sales.
Compared with April 2020, during the first national lock down, sales were up 43.4% and were also up 9.9% compared with the last month before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The ONS said it had seen long-term trends emerge from the pandemic that look set to stay.
It found online-only retailers were the biggest winners from the pandemic, with sales up 56% compared with April 2019 and petrol station sales down 13.3% compared with two years ago, as homeworking and reduced travelling hit the sector.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: "Pentup demand built up during lockdown continues to be released as the reopening of non-essential retail offered the public a welcomed opportunity to visit many of their favourite shop.
"Online sales also continued to perform strongly."