Scottish retail sales suffer as lockdown tightens grip
Total retail sales in Scotland fell by 27.9% year-on-year in January to mark the worst decline since April.
According to figures from KPMG and the Scottish Retal Consortium, sales decreased by 25.2% on a like-for-like basis.
Paul Martin (pictured), head of retail at KPMG UK, said: “It should come as no surprise that Scottish retail figures remain subdued. With fresh restrictions introduced at the start of January, retailers have had to contend with another month of empty high streets as consumers stayed at home. Poor weather has exacerbated the issues, creating a perfect storm, with a total decline of almost 30% representing the worst figures we’ve seen since April last year.”
While total non-food sales dropped by 54.8%, total food sales increased with a year-on-year uplift of 4.3%. Adjusted for the estimated effect of online sales, total non-food sales fell by 26.4% in January.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, head of policy at the Scottish Retail Consortium, added: “There was little positive to report, with the only significant growth in food sales, albeit in the context of no competition from eating out as a result of the closed down hospitality trade. Conversely there was bad news across non-food stores, with physical non-food retail seeing sales fall by half.”
