Retailers around the world will collectively lose out on around £1.65 trillion in sales over the course of the year as a result of the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to projections made by analysts at Forrester.

Bricks and mortar firms will suffer the most, with sales set to slide by a fifth in 2020, while overall the decline will be limited to around 10 per cent thanks to the fact that more people are now carrying out safe shopping online to make up for their inability to access outlets on the high street.

British retailers will be hit to the tune of £56 billion, representing a greater than average drop in spending of 11.4 per cent.

Report spokesperson Michael O’Grady said that the retail sector was being especially severely affected as a result of COVID-19, with the uptick in grocery sales not being enough to counteract the reduction in activity in other areas.

Fashion and cosmetics are bearing the brunt of this crisis, with consumers choosing to avoid splashing out on products from these categories because they are not embarking on the usual professional and social engagements that would make them necessary in normal circumstances.

O’Grady said that non-essential products would be most likely to see double-digit reductions in sales in the coming months, both online and off. Even so, he also said that e-commerce sites will be essential in keeping companies afloat and that retailers would be looking for new ways to engage with customers at a time when their only real way of generating sales is over the internet.

While these are merely forecasts based on current trends, it seems likely that lockdown will not be lifted completely for some time, and so a sales slump of significant proportions is all but inevitable.