This follows a decline of 0.9% in retail sales volume for October, which was revised up from a 1.1% decline previously. The year-on-year estimate for November shows that UK retail sales are now 0.6% higher compared to the same month a year ago. However, that is a marked miss on estimates of +1.6% with the monthly reading missing on estimates of a gain of 0.3%.
Looking at the breakdown, food store sales (-0.5%) once again showed a decline while non-store retailing (-2.9%) was a big drag for the month. Meanwhile, other non-food store sales (-0.8%) also showed a modest decline in November.
All of that is somewhat offset by stronger sales in textile clothing and footwear stores (+1.7%) as well as household goods store sales (+1.8%) - likely attributed to longer Black Friday discounting.
Touching on that, it serves as a good reminder that UK retail sales for November 2024 did not include the impact of Black Friday. That spilled over into the December 2024 reporting period. As such, that makes the year-on-year showing here even less enthusiastic. ONS notes that "when Black Friday falls into the November period there is normally a larger monthly rise in November than in either October or December".
