Retail Sales Volumes Fall for Third Consecutive Month as Consumer Confidence Drops
Office for National Statistics retail sales data confirmed a third consecutive monthly decline in retail sales volumes in April 2026, reflecting the deteriorating consumer confidence picture as the renewed inflationary pressure from oil and energy prices absorbed a growing proportion of household budgets that might otherwise have been available for discretionary retail spending. The sustained contraction in retail volumes is the longest since the pandemic-related closures of 2020 and creates genuine concern about the trajectory of consumer-facing sectors through the summer.
The steepest falls were recorded in non-food non-essential categories — clothing, footwear, household goods and recreational goods — where purchases can most easily be deferred or foregone when budgets are tight. Food retail maintained relatively stable volumes, reflecting the inelastic nature of food spending, though there was evidence within the data of consumers trading down within the food category, substituting own-brand products for branded equivalents and reducing the proportion of convenience and prepared food purchases.
Online retail showed more resilience than physical store formats, maintaining slightly positive volume growth even as total retail declined. Analysts attributed this partly to the structural shift in shopping habits that accelerated during the pandemic and has proved largely permanent, and partly to the comparative price transparency of online channels that allows cost-conscious consumers to identify the lowest available prices more efficiently than store-based shopping permits.
High street vacancy rates, which had been showing gradual improvement through 2024 and 2025 as conditions for physical retail stabilised, halted their recovery in the latest BRC-Springboard data, with some regional high streets recording renewed increases in empty units as footfall declined. Town centre managers called for targeted support to prevent the fragile high street recovery being reversed by the latest consumer spending pressures.
