Flooring outperforms retail decline
January 26, 2021
Floor retailing grew by 3.4% in 2020 against a background of the UK's worst high street sales decline in history, says latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
Strong trading between lockdowns boosted flooring,with analysis showing that sales in September and October were up 53% and 65% respectively on 2019 figures – compared to the darkest days of April at 76% down and May at nearly 80% down.
During the November lockdown, the month's sales were only 6% down, representing some carry over of pre-lockdown orders that were sold and installed during the month, but December gave floor retailers little time to recover and showed a sales decline of 20% against the previous year.
Across all sectors, the ONS calculates that the quantity of retail sales in 2020 was down 1.9% for the year compared to 2019, the worst performance ever recorded. Clothing was hardest hit, showing a 25% fall.
Total online retailing values increased by 46.1% in 2020 when compared with 2019, the highest annual growth reported since 2008.
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