Black Friday boosted high street sales and helped retailers post ‘reasonably strong’ results in the run-up to Christmas, new data reveals today.
Official retail sales statistics for November shows continued growth as shoppers bought and spent more than in October.
Retail sales have returned to steady growth since a sharp slow down earlier this year as higher inflation began to kick in.
Household electrical appliances led growth in sales, partly due to reduced prices during the Black Friday sales.
Retail sales, viewed on a rolling three month basis (piuctured), in November were up 0.8 per cent the ONS data reveals
Black Friday boosted high street sales and helped retailed post ‘reasonably strong’ results in the run-up to Christmas
Rhian Murphy, ONS Senior Statistician said: ‘Underlying retail sales growth remained reasonably strong in the last few months.
‘Household goods stores had a good November, with a number of businesses saying that Black Friday promotions boosted sales.’
The Office for National Statistics data includes sales recorded on Black Friday, which fell on November 24, but not Cyber Monday on November 27. Those sales will fall into the December data.
Looked on a rolling three month basis, sales in November were up 0.8 per cent, the ONS data reveals.
Sales in November were up 1.1 per cent on October, with household goods growing faster at 2.9 per cent.
Year on year figures show fuel and clothes have been the biggest driver of higher retail sales compared to 2016
Online shopping (including from Amazon’s warehouse in Peterborough, pictured) continues to grow dramatically. Average weekly spending online was £1.2 billion – an increase of 10.2 per cent compared with November 2016.
Total average store prices increased by 3.1 per cent in November 2017 when compared with the same period last year.
There were price increases across all store types, in particular food stores had the largest price increase of 3.6 per cent since September 2013.
Online shopping continues to grow dramatically. Average weekly spending online was £1.2 billion – an increase of 10.2 per cent compared with November 2016.
The amount spent online now accounts for 17.0 per cent of all retail spending compared with 16.1 per cent in November 2016.