Retail sales, Great Britain: July 2024

Retail sales volumes (quantity bought) are estimated to have risen by 0.5% in July 2024, following a fall of 0.9% in June 2024 (revised up from a 1.2% fall in our previous publication).

Department stores and sports equipment stores reported a boost following summer discounts and sporting events.

More broadly, sales volumes rose by 1.1% in the three months to July 2024, when compared with the three months to April 2024.

Sales volumes rose by 0.5% during July 2024, following a 0.9% fall in June 2024. Volumes rose by 1.4% over the year to July 2024, after poor weather impacted sales in July 2023. When compared with their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic level in February 2020 volumes were down 0.8%.

More broadly, there was a 1.1% rise across the three months to July 2024 when compared with the three months to April 2024, and a 0.8% rise when comparing with the same period last year. These data are available in our Retail Sales Index datasets.

The reporting period for this bulletin covers 30 June 2024 to 27 July 2024.

Non-food stores sales volumes, the total of department, clothing, household, and other non-food stores, rose by 1.4% in July 2024. This follows a fall of 1.9% in June 2024. Department stores and sports equipment stores grew strongly with retailers suggesting that summer discounting and sporting events, such as the European football Championship, boosted sales.

Non-store retail sales volumes rose by 0.7%, mainly because of a rebound from retailers other than mail order (such as stalls, markets, vending machines and door-to-door sales).

Automotive fuel sales volumes fell by 1.9% during July 2024 following an increase of 2.2% in June 2024. This was despite our Consumer price inflation, UK: July bulletin reporting that the average price of petrol fell by 1.4 pence per litre between June and July 2024, to stand at 144.4 pence per litre. Diesel prices fell by 1.1 pence per litre in July 2024, to stand at 150.4 pence per litre.

The amount spent online, known as “online spending values”, rose by 2.5% during July 2024, and by 3.6%, compared with July 2023.

Total spend, the sum of in-store and online sales, rose by a more moderate 0.7% over the month. The proportion of sales made online increased from 27.4% in June 2024 (revised up from 27.1%) to 27.8% in July 2024.

For July 2024, the response rates were 60.2% based on returned forms. This accounted for 89.8% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For historical response information, see our Retail sales quality tables dataset.

Information on how we calculated the data, including their strengths and limitations, and a glossary of relevant terms are available in our Retail Sales Index Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).