In the three months to June, the quantity of retail sales rose by 2.1 per cent, the largest increase since February 2015.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) report found food stores having the strongest growth since May 2001 at 2.2 per cent, with feedback from supermarkets suggesting that the continued good weather and World Cup had encouraged sales.

However, it was suggested by retailers that these factors resulted in a decrease in footfall in non-food stores, which along with non-store retailing, resulted in a monthly decline of 0.5 per cent in the quantity bought.

Online sales as a total of all retailing remained unchanged at 18 per cent, with online spending in clothing and footwear stores continuing to achieve new record proportions of online retailing, at 17.5 per cent for the fourth consecutive month.

ONS senior statistician Rhian Murphy noted that in June retail sales actually fell back slightly, “with continued growth in food sales offset by declining spending in many other shops as consumers stayed away from stores and instead enjoyed the World Cup and the heatwave”.

ParcelCompare’s head of consumer research David Jinks said this was more bad news for traditional retailers. “Judging from today’s results the diagnosis is that the High Street needs to continue to up its game, providing reasons why shoppers should want to visit town centres to experience a store,” he commented.

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