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Retail sales fall by 1.3%

ended 22. May 2026

Retail sales volumes are estimated to have fallen by 1.3% in April 2026, following a rise of 0.6% in March 2026 (revised down from a 0.7% rise in our previous bulletin), and a fall of 0.8% in February 2026 (revised down from a 0.6% fall in our previous bulletin), ONS data shows.

Fuel volumes fell in April as some retailers suggested that motorists were conserving fuel. This followed strong March growth, with retailers reporting that motorists stocked up as prices rose.

  • What is your reaction to the data?
  • Is it a worry that retail sales volumes have fallen?
  • What can retailers or politicians do to stop the decline?

Responses asap as this is breaking.

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Harry Goodliffe
Director at HTG Mortgages
High streets are continuing to feel the squeeze; a 1.3% drop in retail sales is definitely a warning sign that people are getting more cautious with where their money goes. Falling fuel sales as drivers try to save cash show households still feel under pressure despite all the recent talk of recovery. Retailers will have to lean harder on discounts and loyalty perks, but the government can’t ignore the much bigger issue: household confidence is still weak.
Until the government gets a grip on living costs and economic stability, people will keep cutting back where they can.
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Editor
Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
Retail sales is typically representative of overall growth and today’s data is certainly telling of an economy which isn’t set to grow.

The BoE should consider this data, along with the highly likely event that more burden will be placed on UK households due to the ongoing war in Iran, and proactively start to reduce the base rate to help inject confidence back to the consumer
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Editor
David Stirling
Independent Financial Adviser at Mint Wealth
A death knell for the high street, this data underlines how traditional retailers are being squeezed from every angle: a stuttering economy, persistent cost-of-living pressures, and relentless competition from online giants and supermarket chains. Consumers are clearly pulling back, and unless confidence improves soon, many retailers will fear this is more than just a temporary slowdown.
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Nicholas Found
Head of Commercial Insights at Retail Economics
“April exposed a retail market still running on selective demand. Weak sales levels were hardly surprising. Households have become more defensive as petrol prices rose, prompting many to limit journeys, while fears intensified over the fallout from the Middle East conflict.
“Where demand did hold up, it was concentrated in more purposeful purchases such as health, beauty and new tech. Across food, shoppers are leaning harder on promotions rather than spending with confidence.
“It leaves many retailers squeezed from both sides. Ministers are pressing supermarkets to pass through savings and ease pressure on stretched households, yet retailers themselves are contending with rising wages, higher operating costs and margin pressure of their own. In this environment, it’s a year of market-share battles, not market expansion.
“There is still opportunity for those able to invest in value while executing with discipline to protect margins. The challenge is balancing both."
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
People stop spending because they're frightened, and right now the relentless drumbeat from leaders that AI is coming for everyone's job is doing more economic damage than AI itself. CEOs need to take a long hard look at their messaging. "It's not cost cutting; it's replacing in some cases, lower-value human capital." (Bill Winters). Staggering.

Creating hype for salivating CEOs looking to slash costs, squeeze the pips out of everything, is irresponsible. It raises the hackles of the nation, slows down genuinely helpful transformation, and poisons most people's outlook about AI, even when there are shreds of good news.

The vast majority of job-replacement claims are wildly overstated, built on keynote bravado and vendor brochures, not actual deployment. Most SMEs aren't replacing people. They're struggling to tame the tools they've bought. Wallets will open again when working people feel secure again, and that starts with leaders who stop selling fear and start telling the truth.