In April 2024, retail sales volumes saw a decline of 2.3%, after a slight decline in March 2024. This decline was across many sectors, with adverse weather conditions impacting the performance of retail clothing stores, sports equipment, toy and game stores, and furniture stores. However, more broadly, sales volumes saw a rise of 0.7% over the three months to April 2024 compared to the previous period, with a weak performance recorded in December 2023 and a decline of 0.8% compared to the same period the previous year.
“Bad weather conditions played a major role in the decline in the performance of sectors such as retail clothing stores and furniture stores, as data showed a significant decline in visits to these stores during the aforementioned period. The decline in shopping demand in these sectors may be due to factors such as sudden changes in Temperatures, heavy rains, and storms, which may make customers prefer to stay at home rather than go out shopping.”
Furthermore, other factors such as changes in consumer trends, such as changing tastes or personal preferences of customers, may also be considered. In addition, there may be the impact of general economic factors such as inflation or price fluctuations that may impact customers’ ability to spend significantly.
In April 2024, sales volumes in retail sector saw a decline of 2.3%, after a period of stability in February and March of the same year. Over the year to April 2024, volumes fell by 2.7%, and were 3.8% below their level before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in February 2020.
More broadly, sales volumes were 0.7% higher in the three months to April 2024 than in three months to January 2024, mainly due to exceptional weakness in December 2023. This data is available in available retail sales index data sets.
Retail sectors
1: Out-of-store retailing or “online retailing” is one of the important approaches in the modern retail sector. Although many online retailers make up the bulk of this category, it also includes retailers who sell their products via other means such as mobile kiosks and local markets.
These methods rely on the use of modern means of communication such as the Internet and information technology for marketing, selling and distribution, allowing customers to easily access products and services without having to visit a physical store.
Thanks to the convenience and time savings that online retail offers, it is seeing increasing growth, but out-of-store retailers still have the opportunity to offer unique customer experiences and personal interaction that may not be possible online.
2: Data in our retail sales index datasets
Having retail sales index datasets can be key to understanding trends in the retail market and making data-driven strategic decisions. These data sets help track past performance and identify future trends, enabling traders, investors and analysts to derive benefits from them. By analyzing these sets of data, it is possible to identify which sectors are experiencing growth and which sectors are facing challenges, and thus strategies and efforts can be better directed to achieve success in the retail market. This data can also be used to develop predictive models and market analysis to understand customer behavior and direct marketing and operational efforts more effectively. In addition, this data can be used to measure companies’ performance and evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing and operational strategies, which helps in making the right decisions to improve performance and increase competitiveness. Retail Sales Index datasets provide a powerful framework for market analysis and data-driven strategic decision making, helping to achieve success in the rapidly changing world of retail.
Online retail and retail sales index data set
Online sales decreased during the month but percentage of online sales increased Value sales, monthly percentage change, seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, April 2024
There are inconsistencies in the data that can be puzzling. If online sales decreased during the month, but the proportion of online sales increased in value, this indicates a possible increase in the average value of online transactions. This may be a result of factors such as an increase in the number of high value items sold or an increase in the prices of products sold online.
To fully understand trends and accurately analyze the data, the data must be analyzed more deeply, such as examining the quality of sales and their distribution across product groups, as well as examining any changes in consumers’ online shopping habits during the given month. However, if there is an increase in the value of online sales, this may indicate continued growth of this sector despite negative monthly changes. This could be a positive sign for the online retail industry and may attract interest from investors and those interested in the market.
Retail Sales Index Dataset: Released on 24 May 2024, a series of retail sales data for Great Britain by value and volume, seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted. Retail Sales Pound Dataset: Released on May 24, 2024
Total sales and average weekly expenditure estimates for each retail sector in Great Britain in thousands (pounds sterling).
Also, Internet Sales Index Retail Sales Dataset: Released May 24, 2024, Internet sales in Great Britain by store type, month, and year.
Retail Sales Index Categories and Percentage Weights Dataset: Released 22 March 2024 Retail sales categories, descriptions and percentage weights for all retail trade in Great Britain.
Response rates for April 2024
Important to understand the accuracy of the results and the representativeness of the sample used to collect the data. Response rates: indicate the percentage of forms returned out of the total forms distributed in the sample. In this case, response rates were 64.8%, meaning that 64.8% of the forms distributed were returned.
Job turnover coverage refers to the proportion of individuals from whom data have already been collected compared to the total study sample. In this case, the turnover coverage rate is 94.6%, meaning that 94.6% of the total study sample had data collected.
