Sales data published today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG shows that in 2020 total retail spend fell 0.3% year-on-year, with non-food sales falling 5%, all but offsetting a 5.4% growth enjoyed by food retailers. 

With two national lockdowns and a series of increasing tiered restrictions from March 2020, which forced ‘non-essential’ retailers to periodically shutter shops, the effect on in-store sales was even more pronounced, down 24% year on year for the period. 

The BRC data showed that, despite much of England being placed into tier-four restrictions in mid-December, Christmas sales were fairly resilient, although nowhere near strong enough to offset losses throughout the year.