Singapore retail sales down with 33 percent in April

Singapore retail sales – excluding motor vehicles – plummeted 32.8 percent in April as Covid-19-related lockdowns saw non-essential retailers closing their physical stores.

Including motor vehicles in the data, the fall was 40.5 percent.

Significantly, online sales accounted for a record 17.8 percent of total retailing, with 70.6 percent of sales in the computer and telecommunications category occurring online in April and 50.4 percent of furniture and household equipment. However, just 7.7 percent of the total sales of supermarkets were conducted online.

According to Statistics Singapore, the worst-affected retail sector overall was department stores where sales fell by 87.8 percent. Sales in watch and jewelry stores fell by 84.6 percent.

On the plus side, sales by supermarkets & hypermarkets soared 74.6 percent, partly driven by people staying at home to work or study during the Circuit Breaker lockdown and partly due to the move from eating out to preparing food at home. Minimarts & convenience stores boosted their sales by 10.7 percent.