Retail sales rise, but clothes and shoe shops are hard hit in Q4

Clothes shops have been hard hit. Photo: DutchNews.nl
Clothes shops have been hard hit. Photo: DutchNews.nl

Despite the coronavirus crisis, Dutch retail sales rose by nearly 6% over the year, according to new figures from national statistics agency CBS.

This means retail sales have now risen for seven years in a row, the CBS said.

However, there are wide differences between different types of retail. And in the last three months of the year, during which non-essential shops were partly closed, shoe and clothing store sales fell 27% year on year.

By contrast, internet shopping soared 55% in the last quarter, the CBS figures show.

The overall increase is due to food shops, where sales rose nearly 7% in the final quarter of 2020. However, the best performance was booked by DIY stores, where sales were up nearly 17% as people spent time and money improving their homes.

Despite the problems in the non-food sector, relatively few shops went bust in the final three months of the year, the CBS said.

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