The British Independent Retailers Association has commented on November's ONS sale data and said shoppers are 'tightening their purse strings' as they prepare for the cost-of-living crisis to hit.

The association, which works with over 6,000 independent businesses of all sizes across the UK, has reacted to the recently released data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The report highlights:

• Retail sales volumes are estimated to have fallen by 0.4% in November following a rise of 0.9% in October
• Non-store retailing sales volumes fell by 2.8%
• Non-food stores sales volumes fell by 0.6% in November and were 1.8% below February 2020 levels
• Food store sales volumes rose by 0.9%

BIRA's CEO Andrew Goodacre (pictured) said: "The ONS data makes grim reading for retailers with Black Friday not even providing a boost that many large retailers hoped for. November (along with December) is a pivotal month for retail and based on these numbers form the ONS it looks as if Christmas has started late in the shops, especially for non food shopping. On-line dales are down again, suggesting that customers are continuing to come back to shops.

“These latest ONS figure confirm what everybody in retail already knew – Christmas has not yet arrived on the high street. The low sales, and even lower volumes of products sold, is extremely worrying for independent retailers throughout the UK. We can see the purse strings being tightened by consumers, and that will only become more prevalent in the new year. 2023 is going to be difficult for retail and high streets in general. Whilst I respect the need to control inflation, we also need the government to give some consideration to economic growth and improving consumer confidence.”