Retail sales soar 4.5% to $4.1b in March

13.0% came from online retail stores.

Singapore's retail sales grew by 4.5% to $4.1b year-over-year (YoY), whilst its seasonally adjusted sales increased 2.2% month-over-month (MoM), accordin to data from the Department of Statistics.

The food and alcohol industry recorded a sizeable 55.1% YoY growth in March 2023 due to higher demand for alcoholic products, including those sold in duty-free shops, followed by sales from wearing apparel and footwear (26.5%) and from department stores (16.8%).

On the other hand, sales from petrol service stations substantially declined to 14.4% YoY, followed by computer and telecommunications equipment (5.6%) and supermarkets and hypermarkets (2.4%).

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On a seasonally adjusted MoM basis, sales from cosmetics, toiletries, and medical goods (17.7%) and watches and jewelry (12.3%) go up due to higher demand.

However, computer and telecommunications equipment, food and alcohol, and recreational goods sales fell between 7.6% and 11.6%.

Meanwhile, 13.0% of the country's total retail sales came from online retail, a 0.6 percentage point higher than the 12.4% recorded in February 2023.

Online retail sales from computers and telecommunications equipment (48.3%), furniture and household equipmen (33.3%), and furniture and household equipment (13.6%) had a large portion of the total retail sales of their respective industries.