Worst year on record for retail

The December figures are positively distorted by the late timing of Black Friday, which occurred in December 2019 as opposed to November in 2018. The 3-month and 12-month averages are not distorted.
 

• Total sales for 2019 decreased by 0.1 percent, compared with 1.2 percent growth in 2018. This is the worst year on record.
• On a Total basis, sales increased by 1.9 percent in December, against a flat 0.0 percent in December 2018. The 3m and 12m average were -0.4 percent and -0.1 percent respectively.
• Taking November and December together to iron out the Black Friday distortions, Total sales declined 0.9 percent compared with the same period in 2018.
• UK retail sales increased by 1.7 percent on a Like-for-like basis from December 2018, when they had decreased 0.7 percent from the preceding year. The 3m and 12m averages were -0.9 percent and 0.5 percent respectively
• Taking November and December together to iron out the Black Friday distortions, Like-for-Like sales declined 1.2 percent compared with the same period in 2018.
• Over the three months to December, In-store sales of Non-Food items declined 3.5% on a Total and 3.8 percent on a Like-for-like basis. This is worse than the 12-month Total average decline of 3.1 percent.
• Over the three months to December, Food sales were a flat 0.0 percent  on a Like-for-like basis and increased 0.7 percent on a Total basis. This is below the 12-month Total average growth of 1.4 percent.
• Over the three-months to December, Non-Food retail sales in the UK decreased by 1.6 percent  on a like-for-like and 1.4 percent on a Total basis. This is below the 12-month Total average decrease of 1.3 percent. For the month of December, Non-Food was in growth year-on-year but positively distorted by the timing of Black Friday.
• Online Non-Food sales increased by 12.8 percent  in December, against a growth of 5.8 percent in December 2018. 
• Taking November and December together to iron out the Black Friday distortions, Online Non-Food sales increased 2.6 percent, which is lower than the 12m average of 3.3 percent.
• Non-Food Online penetration rate increased from 31.2 percent in December 2018 to 34.5 percent this December. 
• Over the two months of November and December, the Online penetration rate was 34.2 percent for 2019, against 32.4 percent for 2018, a 1.8 percentage points increase.