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* Retail sales volumes +2.1% m/m after Jan -8.2%
* Sales down 3.7% vs Feb 2020
* Clothing retailer see fall of 50.4% y/y
* Online sales hit new record 36.1% share
* Jump in sales expected as COVID rules relaxed
* BoE watching for scale of spending bounce-back
(Adds details, economists' comments)
By William Schomberg and Andy Bruce
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - British retail sales partly
recovered in February, helped by locked-down consumers getting
outdoor furniture in preparation for small garden parties and
couples buying Valentine's Day dinners at home rather than in
restaurants.
Sales volumes increased by a monthly 2.1% - in line with a
Reuters poll of economists - after a plunge of more than 8% in
January when England went back into a lockdown and the rest of
the United Kingdom was also under tough restrictions.
Retail sales were down 3.7% compared with February 2020,
before the pandemic struck most Western economies, with many
non-essential retailers still closed. Clothing retailers saw
sales plunge by more than half on their pre-pandemic level.
But many retailers have found ways to soften the blow of the
latest lockdown by improving or opening online shopping
operations.
The Office for National Statistics said the share of
shopping done online reached a record high 36.1%.
"It’s worth saying that overall sales are down 'only' around
4% on pre-virus levels, a marked improvement on what we saw last
spring," ING economist James Smith said.
"Experience of lockdowns also tells us that it will probably
only take a matter of weeks for sales to return - or exceed -
pre-virus levels once the shops re-open."
The ONS said February's recovery from January, when sales
slumped by 8.2% from December, was helped by increased shopping
at budget-end department stores that were allowed to stay open
because they sold food.
"Household goods also fared well, with feedback suggesting
spending on home improvement and outdoor products boosted sales
as consumers prepared for an easing of lockdown restrictions,"
ONS statistician Jonathan Athow said.
Home improvement retailers such as B&Q and Wickes
have performed strongly during the crisis. On Monday, B&Q owner
Kingfisher reported a 44% jump in full-year profit and a
strong start to its new financial year.
The Bank of England says the degree to which households
spend the savings they have accumulated while they were stuck at
home will determine the speed of Britain's recovery from its
worst economic shock in more than three centuries.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to allow groups of up to
six people to meet in gardens from March 29. Non-essential
retailers are expected to re-open on April 12.
On Thursday, a survey by the Confederation of British
Industry showed retailers suffered another difficult month in
March but expectations for sales for the month ahead turned
positive for the first time since December 2019.
James Sproule, a Handelsbanken economist, said online sales
would probably stay high after the lockdown at about 30% of all
sales, "meaning that the progress towards online buying,
previously expected to take place over the next decade, has been
achieved in just 12 months."
(Additional reporting by James Davey; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge, Larry King)
