Retail sales down 13.3% to $3.3b in March

Declines in retail industries selling discretionary items have widened.

Retail sales slipped 13.3% YoY in March to $3.3b as domestic consumption and tourist arrivals continue to be bleak, according to data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat). Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales fell 9.7% over the same period.

The decline is mainly attributed to a larger YoY drop in retail industries selling discretionary items. Of the overall figure, online sales accounted for 8.5%. Online retail sales in the computer & telecommunications equipment, furniture & household equipment and supermarkets and hypermarkets made up 41.2%, 16.5% and 7.5% of the total sales of their respective industries.

Overall sales in wearing apparel & footwear, food & alcohol, department stores and watches & jewellery industries dipped between 34.4% and 41.6% in March, due mainly to a fall in tourism receipts.

On the other hand, supermarkets & hypermarkets and mini-marts & convenience stores experienced higher sales of 35.9% and 4.7%, respectively in March, thanks to higher demand for groceries as more people are staying at home.

On an MoM basis, retail sales slipped 1.3% in March, led by sales in the food & alcohol and motor vehicles industries. which fell 21.6% and 16.4%, respectively.

Meanwhile, sales of food & beverage services fell 23.7% YoY in March to $678m. SingStat said that the decline was broad-based across all industries as a result of lower consumption. On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales of food & beverage services decreased 9.6% in March 2020 over the previous month.

Online food & beverage sales made up an estimated 15.6% of the total figure.

By segments, the turnover of food caterers and restaurants crashed 58.1% and 30.3% YoY, respectively, in March. Likewise, sales of cafes, food courts & other eating places and fast food outlets dropped 14.5% and 2.2%, respectively, over the same period.