The May figure is well below the 0.5% decline forecast by economists polled by Reuters.
The data shows that in May 2025, monthly sales volumes had their largest fall since December 2023. Food sales volumes fell by 5%, non-food stores fell by 1.4%, and clothing sales volumes fell by 1.8%.
The ONS noted that the fall in food sales was mainly because of reduced sales volumes in supermarkets, with retailer comments talking of inflation and customer cutbacks, alongside reduced sales of alcohol and tobacco products.
The fall in non-food stores’ sales volumes was mainly due to falls in clothing and household goods stores such as hardware, paints and glass retailers. Retailer comments mentioned reduced footfall and consumers having completed home projects earlier than usual this year because of good weather, leading to lower sales in May.
Online sales fell for the second consecutive month in May 2025. The amount spent online, known as “online spending values”, fell by 1% over the month to May 2025 and by 2.5% when comparing May 2025 with May 2024.
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Charlie Huggins, manager at Wealth Club, said: “Cracks in consumer spending may finally be starting to appear – retail sales volumes came in much worse than expected in May. The sales decline was broad based with every category seeing weakness and online spending also falling.
“Food sales were especially weak, giving up all their gains in April, and a bit more. Clothing also had another weak month suggesting that consumers may be cutting back on discretionary purchases.
“It’s only one month, but these figures do not paint a great picture. Cracks in the UK economy are starting to appear and consumers are starting to feel less confident. This will intensify pressure on the Bank of England to cut rates sooner rather than later.”
Last week, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) – which represents Britain’s retailers – showed that footfall in UK shops decreased by 1.7% in May compared with the same period the previous year.
