UK retail sales volumes fall by 1.4% in March 2022

UK retail sales volumes fell by 1.4 per cent in March this year following a fall of 0.5 per cent (revised from a fall of 0.3 per cent) in February 2022, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Sales volumes were 2.2 per cent above February 2020 levels. Non-food store sales volumes rose by 1.3 per cent in March due to growth in other non-food stores (2.9 per cent) and household goods stores (2.6 per cent).

The largest contribution to the fall came from non-store retailing in which sales volumes fell by 7.9 per cent over the month following a fall of 6.9 per cent in February; despite these drops, sales volumes were 20.3 per cent above their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels.

The proportion of retail sales online fell to 26 per cent in March 2022, its lowest proportion since February 2020 (22.7 per cent), continuing a broad downward trend since its peak in February 2021 (37.1 per cent).