In spite of lockdown measures being eased throughout May, the British Retail Consortium trade body has revealed that sales were down 5.9 per cent year-on-year.
According to the organisation, this was largely due to temporary shop closures, and while there was a 60.2 per cent increase in online purchases, this did not make up for the gulf in spending on the high street.
BRC CEO Helen Dickinson described the period as "another month of struggle for retailers across the country".
Their survey, jointly conducted with Big Four firm KPMG, showed the second-worst decline on record; the worst was the previous month.
"For those shops whose doors remain shuttered, it was once again a tough month and even those who stayed open suffered reduced footfall and huge costs implementing social distancing measures," Ms Dickinson told the BBC.
"While the month showed record growth in online sales, many retailers will be anxious to see whether demand returns to our high streets when non-essential shops reopen from June 15.
Data from Barclaycard, however, showed that the one major retailer group bucking this continuous downturn continued to be supermarkets, where spending saw a 24.5 per cent rise in May alone.
In particular, the provider highlighted the bank holiday VE Day, where supermarket sales jumped by 27 per cent, saying that UK citizens "made the most" of the "sunny" long weekend.
