2020: Worst year for retail sales. What will the new year have in store?

Retail sales faced their worst year on record, new data reveals.

The coronavirus pandemic's impact has closed our high streets, lost jobs, encouraged shoppers to look online, and encouraged the public to only shop for essentials in supermarkets has subsequently led to the worst annual recording of sales since 1995.

According to the British Retail Consortium, despite food sales rising to reflect the stocking of goods for the pandemic, the demand for non-food products such as clothes, furniture and utensils fell by 5%.

In-store shops selling these non-food products saw their sales drop by a quarter compared with 2019.

Key figures:

• Food sales grew by 5.4% compared to 2019

• In-store traffic, the number of people in shops, fell by 43.4% in 2020

• The worst affected region of the UK which saw a significant decline of people in shops was in Wales

• Overall sales decreased by 0.3%

Experts warn that the current lockdowns that various UK regions face could worsen the impact that COVID-19 is already having on the High Street.

The nightmare for retailers may only continue with nearly 200,000 more retail jobs predicted to be at risk this new year.