ONS Retail Sales April 2025

Retail sales (value, non-seasonally adjusted, exc. fuel) rose by 7.4% year-on-year (YoY) in April according to the latest ONS data. It compares to a 2.7% decline a year earlier.
In volume terms (non-seasonally adjusted, exc. fuel), retail sales rose by 6.8% YoY in April. It compares to a decrease of 4.6% rise a year ago.
It should be noted that ONS figures are based on a sample of some 5,000 retailers and are subject to revisions.

Retail sales value and volume growth – percentage change on a year earlier

Source: ONS, Retail Economics analysis

Note: all retail sales figures provided below are non-seasonally adjusted, excluding Fuel, unless stated otherwise.

Food and non-food

Food sales values accelerated to 7.7% YoY growth in April. This compares to a 2.9% decline a year earlier. Adjusting for inflation, volumes stepped up by 4.9% against a decline of 5.9% in the previous year, but remain slightly down on 2023 levels.
Non-food sales values surged by 8.0% in April, with volumes stepping up by 8.7% against weak comparatives.
Clothing sales values rose by 6.1% on last year in April, while volumes rocketed at its fastest rate since the start of 2023 at 8.5%. Meanwhile, Footwear and Leather Goods volumes dropped by 3.5%.
Household Goods volumes increased by 13.1% YoY, driven by an 18.2% jump in Electrical Household Appliances and 16.8% rise by Hardware sales.
Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics and Toiletries volumes have been in decline since the start of this year, falling by 5.2% in April.

Online

Online sales values rose by 5.9% YoY in April, against a 0.7% decline a year earlier.
Clothing & Footwear remained in growth, with sales up by 6.1%, while Household Goods declined by 5.0%.
Non-store retailing (a proxy for pureplay retailers) increased by 6.3% YoY in the month, against a 1.7% decline a year earlier.
The proportion of retail sales made online was 25.9% in April, compared to 26.3% a year earlier.
Overall, average weekly online sales edged up to £2.36bn in April.

Retail sales price deflator

The retail sales deflator (a measure of inflation specific to retail) rose by 0.5% excluding fuel, but dipped 0.2% when including fuel.
The implied price deflator among food rose to 2.7% in April. Among non-food stores, the price deflator declined by 0.7%.