ONS Retail Sales April 2024

Retail sales (value, non-seasonally adjusted, exc. fuel) declined by 2.7% year-on-year (YoY) in April according to the latest ONS data, following a 4.3% increase in March. It compares to a 5.9% rise a year earlier.
In volume terms (non-seasonally adjusted, exc. fuel), retail sales plunged 4.5% YoY in April following a 1.4% increase in March. It compares to a weak 3.9% decline in April 2023.
Volumes in April 2024 were 5.3% below April 2019 levels.
It should be noted that ONS figures are based on a sample of some 5,000 retailers and are subject to revisions.

Values and volumes plunge into decline in April

Source: ONS, Retail Economics analysis

Note: all retail sales figures provided below are non-seasonally adjusted, excluding Fuel, unless stated otherwise.

Food and non-food

Food sales values declined 2.6% YoY in April. This compares to a 10.2% rise a year earlier, impacted by high inflation. Adjusting for inflation, volumes plummeted 5.7% in April against a 3.9% decline in the previous year.
Non-food sales values declined by 4.7% in the month compared to a 4.4% rise in the previous year. In volume terms, non-food sales slipped back into decline, down by 5.4% in April against a 2.2% fall a year earlier.
Clothing sales values dived 10.0% in April, with volumes down 12.9%. Footwear and Leather Goods suffered a steep 9.9% volume decline in April.
Sales volumes of Household Goods continued consecutive declines for over two and a half years, with sales down 5.8% in April. Big ticket Furniture and Lighting plummeted 12.7%.

Online

Online sales values dipped by 1.5% YoY in April, against a 3.0% rise a year earlier.
Household Goods suffered the deepest declines, with sales down by 14.0% following an 8.9% rise last year, while Clothing & Footwear faced a 4.6% decrease.
Non-store retailing (a proxy for pureplay retailers) edged up 0.5% YoY in the month, against a 3.7% increase a year earlier.
The proportion of retail sales made online was 26.1% in April, slightly up on 25.8% a year earlier.
Overall, average weekly online sales were £2.21bn in April, up from £2.24bn in the previous year.

Retail sales price deflator

The retail sales deflator (a measure of inflation specific to retail) rose by 1.9% YoY in April when excluding fuel – the weakest rate since July 2021 – and rose by 1.7% when including fuel.
The implied price deflator among food stores eased to 3.3% YoY in April, against a peak of 14.6% in in the previous year. Among non-food stores, the price deflator eased to its softest level since March 2021 at 0.7% in April.