SINGAPORE — The two major e-commerce events in November — Singles Day and Black Friday — failed to boost overall retail sales in Singapore that month, data released by the Department of Statistics showed on Friday (Jan 11).

Retail sales fell by 3 per cent in November last year compared with the same month the year before.

The total retail sales value for the month stood at about S$3.8 billion, of which 6.6 per cent came from online retail sales.

NOVEMBER SHOPPING SPREE

• Boosted by Black Friday sales, takings at department stores rose 8.7 per cent compared with the same period last year.

• Sales of apparel and footwear, furniture and household equipment, recreational goods and watches and jewellery also rose between 0.3 per cent and 3.3 per cent.

• However, sales of optical goods and books fell 4.6 per cent.

IN THE RED

• A 15.1 per cent slump in motor vehicles sales was a major drag on the index.

• Excluding motor vehicles, the decline in the retail sales index was 0.2 per cent year-on-year.

• A 22.1 per cent decline in the sales of computer and telecommunications equipment also weighed heavily on the index. The sharp drop was in part due to unusually high sales that took place in November 2017, when the Apple iPhone X was launched.

• The food and beverage services index grew 2.4 per cent in November from the same period a year before, as higher takings at restaurants, cafes and fast food outlets outweighed a 2 per cent fall in food catering sales.