Retail Sales volume increased by 3.6% in December 2019
The volume of retail sales increased by 3.6% in December when compared to November on a seasonally adjusted basis and increased by 5.8% on an annual basis.
Note: ‘Black Friday’ is included in the December reporting period for the RSI, which covers the 5 weeks 24/11/2019 – 28/12/2019. In 2018 ‘Black Friday’ was covered in the November reporting period.
When Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales increased by 2.8% in December 2019 and rose by 5.0% when compared with December 2018.
The sectors with the largest month on month volume increases were Food, Beverages & Tobacco (11.7%) and Motor Trades (5.3%). The sectors with the largest monthly volume decreases were Other Retail Sales (-10.0%) and Books, Newspapers & Stationery (-3.0%).
There was an increase of 3.4% in the value of retail sales in December 2019 when compared with November 2019 and there was an annual increase of 4.6% when compared with December 2018. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was an increase of 2.9% in the value of retail sales in the month and an increase of 3.0% in the annual figure.
Unadjusted indices are available on CSO Statbank.
Online Sales
The sector with the highest share of its sales online in December 2019 was Online & Mail Order at 87.5%. This sector accounted for 1.0% of turnover in the 2017 Annual Services Inquiry. For Electrical Goods the online share was 13% and for Clothing, Footwear & Textiles it was 7.3%.
