2020 proved to be a tough year for the retail sector and while we look forward to a better year, a second wave of the COVID-19 virus has pushed back the prospect of a consumer-led recovery to the second half of the year.
Retail sales proved resilient in 2020. Consumers shopped online in ever larger numbers, an acceleration of a pre-existing trend. But the scale of change is startling: the first half of 2020 saw five years of growth in online market share in a matter of weeks. Even when non-essential stores reopened, footfall was significantly down on 2019 – an early indicator that some changes in consumer behaviour were sticking.
Read the full insight on the Deloitte website