Monthly survey on retail trade 2020Dec
Published on 19 January 2021
In December, turnover in retail trade rebounded steeply
Disclaimer :
The trend in retail sales does not reflect that of total household consumption: the latter includes other items such as healthcare, education and rents.
The trend in retail sales does not reflect that of total household consumption: the latter includes other items such as healthcare, education and rents.
In December, turnover in retail trade grew by 15.4% when comparing to December 2019, adjusted for seasonal and working-day variations, after declining by 24.6% year-on-year in November. This recovery can be attributed to the reopening of all retailers on 28 November and the postponement of Black Friday to December. The rise is significant, even taking into account the fact that last year December sales suffered from social movements. Although broad-based, this increase was driven more by industrial goods sales (22.9%) than by food sales (3.1%). The best-performing sectors were furniture (+45.1%), jewellery and timepieces (43.5%) and household appliances (37.5%). The only sector to lose ground over a year was the automobile sector (-3.2%).
In terms of distribution channels, sales of small retailers rose by 15.7% compared to december 2019 and those of large general retailers put on 9.3%. This rise in the activity of large general retailers was driven by supermarkets (4.3%) and hypermarkets (3.8%). By contrast, department store activity was down (-2.6% year-on-year). For December final distance selling data is not yet available; however, for November, the lockdown led to a substantial growth of this channel, posting a 44.2% increase year-on-year after 23.1% in October.
In terms of distribution channels, sales of small retailers rose by 15.7% compared to december 2019 and those of large general retailers put on 9.3%. This rise in the activity of large general retailers was driven by supermarkets (4.3%) and hypermarkets (3.8%). By contrast, department store activity was down (-2.6% year-on-year). For December final distance selling data is not yet available; however, for November, the lockdown led to a substantial growth of this channel, posting a 44.2% increase year-on-year after 23.1% in October.
Total industrial goods and food sales: year-on-year change (%)
December and November 2020, y-o-y comparison; seasonally and working-day adjusted volume terms
Notes :
- Sectors are classified according to the relative weight of the products included in the total aggregate of retail trade (see methodology)
- The aggregated and by sub-sector series are seasonally adjusted on an individual basis: the seasonally adjusted series do not represent the sum of the seasonally adjusted components.
- Sectors are classified according to the relative weight of the products included in the total aggregate of retail trade (see methodology)
- The aggregated and by sub-sector series are seasonally adjusted on an individual basis: the seasonally adjusted series do not represent the sum of the seasonally adjusted components.
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