High street loses battle as big freeze hammers sales

• Some braved the bad weather but overall sales took a big hit during the festive season

Retailers almost unanimously reported a major drop in footfall – the number of people visiting their stores – over the normally buoyant Christmas trading period.

Bike and car parts retailer Halfords, Argos owner Home Retail Group and electrical goods firm Dixons all reported a drop in like-for-like sales, comparing figures only from stores that have been open for more than a year.

At chocolate chain Thorntons, sales dropped slightly in the 14 weeks to 8 January compared with last year, but the brand reported a surge of almost 8 per cent in web sales.

Business at the confectioner's stand-alone high street stores was particularly badly affected by the icy conditions, the firm added, falling almost 6 per cent.

December is usually the busiest time of the year for retailers, but many reported a rise in online orders as shoppers opted to stay indoors to buy their Christmas gifts.

Of the high street retailers reporting yesterday, only supermarket giant Tesco published an upbeat update, saying like-for-like sales rose by 0.6 per cent in the six weeks to 8 January.

"It was never going to be a brilliant December, but the problems with the weather made it a little bit tougher than it would have been otherwise," said Sarah Cordey, spokeswoman for the Scottish Retail Consortium.

"But what is important to remember is that most major retailers have a presence on both the web and the high street, so they are operating more widely."

North of the Border, however, many stores stopped accepting online orders in the run-up to Christmas, as heavy snowfalls hampered deliveries.

"It is true that online sales may have benefited initially as shoppers turned to the internet to continue their Christmas shopping," added Ms Cordey. "But unfortunately, many retailers then had delivery problems, especially in Scotland."

Book publisher Bloomsbury – which sells its products at bookshops such as Waterstone's as well as online, was unusual among the companies issuing updates yesterday in reporting a strong performance – boosted, it said, by a burgeoning e-book market that has been stimulated by rise of the iPad and Kindle e-readers.

The film tie-in edition of Eat, Pray, Love, which starred Julia Roberts on the big screen, was a particularly strong bestseller.

Retail chain Game also said it saw improved sales over the festive period, the result of strong Christmas demand for new video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and FIFA 11, as well as the launch of motion-sensing devices Kinect for the Xbox and PlayStation's Move.

Game saw like-for-like sales declines narrow to 0.5 per cent in the five weeks to 8 January from a 7.6 per cent drop in the previous 18 weeks.

Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: "I think to get a true overview of the retail performance over the Christmas period, you need to look not only at December, but in the whole period to the end of January," she said. "A lot of people who would have put their hands in their pockets before Christmas, but physically weren't capable of doing so, may well spend that money now."

Earlier this week, figures from the British Retail Consortium showed that UK retail sales values fell 0.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis in December, compared to the same month in 2009. Scottish figures are due to be released later this week.

The severe weather also hit Scottish transport company FirstGroup, which said the cold snap had cost it 7 million in lost profits. The Aberdeen-based firm warned that it had been badly affected by the widespread travel disruption, despite a rise in revenue at its UK bus and train services.