Meanwhile online sales as a proportion of all retailing increased to 19.2% in October 2019, from the 19% reported in September 2019. And the importance of e-sales can be see by the ONS saying that “non-store retailing provided the largest contribution to the year-on-year growth, [while] non-food stores were the smallest contributors to growth.”But what about that rise in department store sales? The ONS said department stores were up 2% month-on-month by volume and up 0.2% year-on-year. That contrasted with textile, clothing and footwear stores that were down 1% on the month, although they were up 2.6% on the year, which is good in the straightened circumstances of UK fashion retail at the moment.

Department stores actually saw their biggest month-on-month growth since May 2018…