AG百家乐在线官网

The reopening of DIY stores last month helped fuel a partial bounce back in retail sales following all-time record falls in April caused by the coronavirus lockdown.

But the 12% hike in May was still down 13.1% on February before the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), non-food stores were the main driver of growth, bolstered by a 42% increase in household goods store sales as hardware and paint outlets opened their doors again.

B&Q resumed trading last month leading to huge queues of shoppers in car parks, while Ikea reopened earlier this month.

Online sales rose to a new record high, accounting for 33.4% of total spend, compared with 30.8% in April.

While fuel sales rose as some employees started returning to work, they remained 42.5% lower than February as people continued to be encouraged to avoid unnecessary travel and work from home if possible.

In the three-month period to May, the volume of retail sales fell by a record 12.8%, with declines across all stores except food and non-store retailing with a boom in online sales.

The ONS said this was because many shops closed their doors as part of the nationwide effort to curb the spread of infection.

There was also a slight dip - 0.3% - in the amount sold by food stores in May as shoppers worked their way through stores stockpiled during the panic-buying seen in March.

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on , , ,

The figures were released as John Lewis confirmed it will reopen a further nine department stores next week, bringing the total number trading to 22.

The stores opening are at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Peter Jones in London, Southampton, Tunbridge Wells and York.

However, this still leaves 28 stores closed and insiders have warned previously it is "highly unlikely" all 50 will ever reopen again.

Berangere Michel, director of customer service at the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, said: "We are still reopening our shops carefully and in phases to ensure that our safety measures are absolutely right, and remain prepared to stop and review our plans if need be.

"We are already applying lessons learned from our first store openings earlier this week.

"We found that in some shops we were able to increase the number of customers and still maintain robust social distancing, and made our signage clearer in order to help customers navigate the changes."