Retail sales partly rebounded in May, according to an Office for National Statistics report released in June (19).
There was an increase of 12% in comparison to record falls experienced in the previous month. However, sales were still down by 13.1% on February, which was before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Non-food stores provided the largest positive contribution to the monthly growth in May 2020, aided by a strong increase of 42.0% in household goods stores, with the opening of hardware, paints and glass stores reflected in this sector.
The proportion spent online soared to the highest proportion on record in May 2020 at 33.4%, which compares with the 30.8% reported in April 2020.
In the three months to May 2020, the volume of retail sales decreased by a record 12.8%, with declines across all stores except food and non-store retailing.
