As the month morphed from urging consumers to maintain social distancing into a complete lockdown, in-store like-for-like sales plummeted by a record 34.1%. And total like-for-like sales, including those in shops and online, fell 17.9%. That last figure compared badly to a 6.5% rise in March 2019. Equally unsurprisingly, fashion suffered the most with a 40.4% plunge in-store. Sales had risen 8.2% a year ago. And the figures show just how bad the month was as each week went by. Every week was negative, but the fall built to the end of the month with the final week down an astonishing 99.28% for fashion. 

Given that this was the week in which the lockdown started, that might not be a shock. But it still included two days in which consumers were still allowed to go into shops. That highlights how much physical shopping activity had already stalled before the lockdown started.Meanwhile, homewares sales fell 26.1% with BDO saying it was the worst month ever for fashion and the worst for homewares since May 2018. The category had risen 9% this time last year.Overall non-store sales rose 13.7%, a rise being expected given that consumers were unable to go into physical shops. However, the figure looked less appealing when compared to the same month last year when it rose 18.7%. Again, fashion suffered the most with a substantial drop in demand. BDO said that reduced footfall due to social distancing and isolation diverted demand from discretionary to essential items. Sophie Michael, Head of Retail and Wholesale at BDO, said: “It’s no surprise that March was the worst month on record for the high street, as the Covid-19 outbreak had an immediate impact on consumer demand for discretionary items.“Understandably, shoppers are being very cautious with their pounds, as concerns about job security grip the nation. For most retailers, in-store sales make up the largest portion of their revenue, so they are having to rely solely on non-store channels and adapt aggressively to survive. It is likely that the pandemic has only sped up the shift away from in-store shopping as consumers become even more accustomed to buying online.”