Britons splashed out at the start of December but the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, may have led some consumers to shift their spending online, the results of a closely-followed survey revealed.
According to BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker, total like-for-like retail sales jumped by 10.4% over the week ending on 12 December when compared with the same seven-day stretch one year before.
BDO highlighted that growth came about despite the “healthy” 6.42% rise in total LFLs seen one year before, in what was the first full week of physical trading after a month of lockdown in England.
However, where as in-store LFL’s were up by 16.95% off a weak base of -19.09% one year before, non-store LFLs increased by 2.87% off of a “very soild base” of 67.69% one year before.
It was the first positive reading for total non-store LFLs since the first week of November 2021.