According to the report from Istat, in December 2020 estimates for seasonally adjusted index of retail trade increased by 2.5% in the month on month series, both in value and volume terms.

In the 4th quarter of 2020, value of sales dropped by 1.5% and volume fell by 0.8% when compared with the previous quarter.

Year on year, value of retail trade decreased by 3.1%, with a 9.4% fall in non-food sales and a 6.6% increase in food sales. Volume sales contracted by 3.2%.

In December 2020, all channels of distribution, besides e-commerce, continued their fall when compared with December 2019. Large-scale distribution was down 2.5% year on year, small-scale distribution dropped by 6.6% and non-store retail sales decreased by 12.3%.

Online sales continued their rise in December 2020, with sales up by 33.8% compared with the same period a year earlier.

Looking at the value of sales for non-food products, among all other sectors, clothing reported the largest annual fall at negative 23.4%, followed by shoes, leather goods and travel items (-14.6%). Growths were only reported for computers and telecommunications equipment (+15.3%), tools (+2.3%) and furniture, textile items and household furnishings (+0.5%).