British consumer spending fell 7.1 per cent year-on-year in 2020, as coronavirus restrictions hampered the high street and hospitality sectors.
However, lifestyle changes boosted growth for some sectors, with online grocery seeing the largest increase. Data from Barclaycard, which sees nearly half of the nation's credit and debit card transactions, revealed that spending on essential items rose by 4.1 per cent year-on-year in 2020.
This was largely driven by supermarket shopping, which saw an overall growth of 15.7 per cent, with online grocery shopping surging 70.3 per cent as the demand for delivery services increased.