Retail sales, Great Britain: April 2023

• Retail sales volumes are estimated to have risen by 0.5% in April 2023, following a fall of 1.2% in March 2023 (revised from a fall of 0.9%).

• Sales volumes rose by 0.8% in the three months to April 2023 when compared with the previous three months; the highest rate since August 2021 (1.3%).

• Non-food stores sales volumes rose by 1.0% in April 2023, following a fall of 1.8% in March when poor weather conditions throughout most of March affected sales.

• Food stores sales volumes rose by 0.7% in April 2023, following a fall of 0.8% in March 2023; sales volumes were 2.7% below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) February 2020 levels.

• Non-store retailing (mainly online retailers) sales volumes rose by 0.2% in April 2023, following a fall of 1.4% in March 2023.

• Despite falling fuel prices, automotive fuel sales volumes fell by 2.2% in April 2023, following a rise of 0.1% in March 2023.

Table 1 provides a snapshot of the retail sales industry in April 2023, with both volume and value growth rates.

The reporting period for this bulletin covers 2 April to 29 April 2023 and includes the school Easter holiday period from 3 to 14 April 2023.

Figure 1 shows the divergence between the quantity bought (volume) and amount spent (value) in retail sales over time because of price increases.

When compared with their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) level in February 2020, total retail sales were 16.5% higher in value terms, but volumes were 0.8% lower.

Figure 2 shows the contributions to the 0.5% month-on-month rise in overall retail sales volumes (quantity bought) in April 2023. This highlights that the increase over the month is because of rises in the non-food stores and food stores sectors, while automotive fuel stores contributed negatively.

Non-food stores

Total non-food stores sales volumes (the total of department, clothing, household and other non-food stores) rose by 1.0% over the month. Sales volumes partially recovered from a fall of 1.8% in March 2023 when feedback from retailers suggested that poor weather conditions affected sales.

The Met Office's monthly climate summary (PDF, 6.086MB) reported that the UK had 155% of average rainfall for the month, making it the sixth wettest March in records reaching back to 1836. The weather in April was around average for the month as reported in the Met Office's monthly climate summary (PDF, 5.878MB).

Within non-food stores, the sub-sector of other non-food stores reported a monthly rise in sales volumes of 2.1% because of strong sales in watches and jewellery, and sports equipment stores.

Department stores sales volumes rose by 1.7% following a fall of 3.0% in March 2023. Sales volumes were 5.0% below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) February 2020 levels.

Clothing stores sales volumes rose by 0.2%, while household goods stores fell 0.2% over the month.

Food stores

Food stores sales volumes rose by 0.7% in April 2023, following a fall of 0.8% in March 2023. Sales volumes rose by 0.2% in the three months to April 2023 when compared with the previous three months, the first rise in this series since August 2022 (0.7%).

Despite this increase, food stores sales volumes were 2.7% below their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels.

Automotive fuel

Automotive fuel stores sales volumes (quantity bought) fell by 2.2% in April 2023, following a rise of 0.1% in March 2023.

Sales volumes in March and April 2023 may have been partly affected by industrial action. Our Public opinion and social trends bulletin for the period 5 to 16 April reported that 39% of adults had been affected by industrial action in the last month, an increase from 27% in the period 22 March to 2 April.

Among those affected by industrial action, 19% reported that they could not travel for holiday or leisure as planned in the period 5 to 16 April. This was compared with 14% for the period 23 March to 2 April.

Our Public opinion and social trends bulletin for the period 4 to 14 May was published on 19 May 2023.

Table 2 shows the month-on-month and month-on-year (annual) growth rates for the amount spent online by value, and the proportion of total retail sales value that was made online by sector. The percentage weights show where money is spent online. For example, 7 pence in every pound spent online was spent in department stores in 2022.

Online spending values rose by 1.5% in April 2023 because of monthly increases across food stores, other non-food stores and non-store retailing.

The proportion of online sales was unchanged at 26.0% in April 2023 when compared with March 2023 and has remained broadly consistent at around 26% since May 2022.

The proportion of retail sales taking place online remains above the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels (19.9% in February 2020).

Value (amount spent)

The value estimates reflect the total turnover that businesses have collected over a standard period.

Volume (quantity bought)

The volume estimates are calculated by taking the value estimates and adjusting to remove the effect of price changes.

Seasonally adjusted

Seasonally adjusted estimates are derived by estimating and removing calendar effects (for example, Easter moving between March and April) and seasonal effects (such as increased spending in December because of Christmas) from the non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) estimates.

Non-seasonally adjusted

Non-seasonally adjusted estimates refer to raw data where the effects of regular or seasonal patterns have not been removed.

Non-store retailing

Non-store retailing refers to retailers that do not have a store presence. While the majority is made up of online retailers, it also includes other retailers, such as stalls and markets.

Quality

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Retail Sales Index Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Revisions

Revisions in this release are a result of:

• revisions to seasonal adjustment factors, which have been reviewed and re-estimated

• late responses to survey returns replacing imputations, or revisions to original returns

Revisions are allowed to occur naturally each month, along the full length of each data time series, following direct seasonal adjustment of the component time series.

For further information on the revisions profile, please see our Retail sales revisions triangles dataset, published on a one-month growth basis, and our Retail sales revisions triangles datasets, published on a three-month growth basis.

Uses and users

The Retail Sales Index (RSI) is an important economic indicator and one of the earliest short-term measures of economic activity. It is used in the creation of the national accounts and widely used by private and public sector institutions, particularly by the Bank of England and HM Treasury, to assist in informed decision and policymaking.

Comparability with international data

The most recent international estimate of retail sales available for April 2023 was published by the United States Census Bureau on 16 May 2023. In their Advanced monthly sales for retail and food services April 2023 report they included the amount spent in the United States retail industry, including motor vehicles and parts, and food services.

Data for Northern Ireland are published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Their Retail Sales Index release for Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022 was published on 16 March 2023.

It should be noted that accurate comparisons cannot be made against these or other international statistics for a variety of reasons, including differences in methodology.

Eurostat also published their latest estimates of the volume of retail trade across the EU on 5 May 2023 for March 2023. This shows the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade in both the euro area (EA19) and the European Union (EU27), when compared with February 2023.