Fashion weakness dents UK November retail sales stats

Official UK retail sales figures didn’t deliver much festive cheer for the fashion sector on Friday with news that clothing sales dropped last month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said total retail sales volumes are estimated to have risen by 0.2% month on month in November, following a fall of 0.7% in October 2024. But growth in supermarkets and other non-food stores was partly offset by that fall for clothing retailers.

Admittedly, because Black Friday was late this year (29 November), it fell outside of the survey period, which ran form 27 October to 23 November. But the ONS did seasonally adjust the numbers to account for this.

Year on year sales volumes rose 0.5% in total.

Textile, clothing & footwear stores were actually the very worst of all categories last month. They fell by 2.6% in November, following a 3.5% fall in October 2024. This left clothing stores sales volumes at their lowest level since January 2022, with retailers reporting that economic factors were affecting sales.

But while department stores were also in negative territory, non-food stores’ sales volumes overall (the total of department, clothing, household and other non-food stores) actually managed to rise 0.2% over the month “with a strong positive contribution from ‘other’ retail sales”. ‘Other’ means those not fitting any of the specific categories. This sub-sector rose by 7.9% in November, rebounding from a 7.1% fall in October.

As for non-store retailing — which is dominated by online — the ONS said online value sales fell 4.3% and dropped across all main sectors for the second month in a row. Clothing stores were down over 5% and department e-stores weren’t far behind.