In March 2013, the quantity bought in the retail sector (or sales volumes) decreased by 0.5%.This follows strong year-on-year growth of 2.5% in February 2013 and a year-on-year decreasein January of 0.6%. Quarter 1 2013 does however show an increase of 0.4% compared with Quarter 4 2012.

• The largest contribution to the year-on-year decrease came from the non-food sector, wherecompared with March 2012, the quantity of goods bought decreased by 2.6%.
• March 2013 was the second coldest on record and this appears to have had a negative effect onsales in the non-food sector. Feedback from department stores, clothing stores and householdgoods stores suggested that sales were dampened by the weather as they prepared their storesfor the spring season.
• In March 2013, the overall proportion of non-seasonally adjusted online sales remained high at10.4% reflecting feedback from large retailers, which suggested that during the continued winter
weather consumers purchased from their online sites rather than in store.
• The amount spent (or sales values) in the retail sector increased by 0.1% between March 2012and March 2013. The largest contributions came from the food and non-store retailing sectors.